SCHOOL balances that have fallen £4 million into the red are improving, councillors have been told.

The cumulative deficit balance for all of Monmouthshire’s 35 schools stood at £4.1m at the end of the 2024/25 financial year in March with 15 in deficit as they have spent more than they have budgeted for.

Members of the county council’s performance and overview scrutiny committee were told all schools in deficit are required to have a recovery plan and education finance manager Nikki Wellington said: “We can see they are making those recoveries and coming back in line with the plan.”

Committee chair, Councillor Alistair Neill said the deficit had grown over the past financial year from nearly £1m to just over £4m but Ms Wellington confirmed schools are seeing an improvement, having drawn down £3.187m from their reserve last year.

Savings from reduced staffing can only be achieved over seven months of the financial year, from September to March, in the first year before delivering a full 12 months of savings the following year.

“In year one you will only get seven months savings and we knew it would get worse before it gets better but school balances are narrowing,” said Ms Wellington.

The total allocated for individual school budgets in the current financial year is £60.45m, which is around 27 per cent of the council’s budget, and it acknowledges inflation and pay increases are impacting schools which also have to deliver Welsh Government reforms including the new curriculum and additional learning needs reforms which it says haven’t always been fully funded.

The number of schools in deficit, including the referral unit, had increased from 13 at the start of the financial year and the in-year projection peaked, in the third quarter, at 24 but reduced due to late grant funding and cost-saving measures.

The new three-to-19 school in Abergavenny along with Chepstow Comprehensive and the referral unit have been highlighted in the report which stated: “Ongoing budget challenges at Chepstow Comprehensive, King Henry VIII School, and the Pupil Referral Service remain a significant concern.

“The local authority continues to work closely with representatives from these schools to implement agreed budget recovery plans. It is acknowledged that, due to the scale of the challenges, the recovery process will take longer than initially anticipated.”

Overmonnow Labour councillor Steve Garratt, a former teacher, said he was concerned about the cost of supply teachers and said: “We need to take the profit out of supply teaching as well as social care.”

He said in his experience schools could save on supply costs by using “partially retired teachers”.

Ms Wellington confirmed a number of schools are using agency staff but are encouraged to use the Welsh Government framework and if they opt against that must follow the counci’s procurement process.

She also said the council encourages schools to appoint a member of staff for extended periods of absence, such as maternity leave, rather than use supply teachers.