Education job losses in Sandwell 'inevitable', says boss
Jobs in Sandwell's education department will 'inevitably' be lost as more schools are turned into academies, a finance chief has warned today.
Sandwell Council's resources boss, Councillor Steve Eling, said that with every new academy school opening, the less money the authority was receiving from central Government.
And as the local authority has even less involvement in the running of schools, workers will face the axe, he said.
It comes as a further two schools in the borough are due to open as academies from September.
Of Sandwell's 94 primary schools, six are academies while 88 are maintained schools.
And of the borough's 17 secondary schools, 11 are academies and six are maintained schools.
The council is also expecting two more primary schools to convert to academies on September 1.
Councillor Eling, cabinet member for strategic resources and deputy leader of the council, said: "As more schools become academies the amount of money that the local education authority gets from Government goes down and that is causing a problem. If the Government provides less money, that is going to mean more job losses in the education department."
Councillor Eling said budgets will be 'squeezed and squeezed' and added: "There will be inevitably more job losses as the Government reduces funding. The news of further job cuts comes as a further blow to the cash-strapped council, which needs to save £100 million from its budget by 2017.
Earlier this month, borough council leader, Councillor Darren Cooper told the Express & Star that 500 jobs will go at the authority over the next four years, bringing the total amount of staff to leave the council up to 2,500 since the cuts began in 2010.
The council was initially faced with making cuts of £75m by 2015. However, after the Chancellor's Autumn Statement last year, it was revealed the authority would need to make cuts of £100m by 2017 – a further £25m.
