THE financial deficit of a Bradford secondary school is expected to have risen to £5.1 MILLION.

And one of Bradford Council’s education bosses has admitted it will take “a long time” to recover the deficit from Hanson School, in Swain House.

For years Hanson’s rising deficit has proved to be a major problem for Bradford’s education services.

The school, which has over 1,600 pupils, has been working with the Council to improve its finances, but a report going to Bradford Council’s Executive on Tuesday reveals that Hanson’s deficit is likely to have increased from £4.3 million at the end of the 2019/20 financial year to an £5.1 million at the end of the 2020/21 financial year.

Pressures relating to the Covid 19 pandemic are one reason given by the Council for the increasing deficit.

The deficit has been rising for a number of years, and previous meetings discussing the issue have heard it is due to a mix of the school being locked into a costly PFI contract, a drop in pupil numbers a number of years ago, and the school governing body also being responsible for an on site sports facility.

The Department for Education made an order to convert Hanson into an academy in 2011 after a critical Ofsted report.

Since then a number of academy chains have stepped in to take on the school, but each arrangement has fallen through and Hanson remains a local authority school.

Although there has been improvement in the school’s performance, and it was recently praised for stepping up to become a major producer of PPE during the pandemic, the deficit remains a major issue.

Ofsted visits Hanson Academy in Bradford for Covid check-up

Under current rules, if a local authority school has a deficit and goes on to becomes an academy, the deficit remains with the Council, rather than the academy chain.

If Hanson were to now become an academy, it would mean Bradford Council will be left with the £5.1m deficit.

The Quarter 4 financial position statement going before the Executive on Tuesday says that of all Bradford Council run schools, three face a financial deficit – a nursery, a primary school and Hanson.

The report says: “There are currently three schools forecasting a combined deficit balance of £5.2m.

“The main concern remains with Hanson Secondary where the deficit balance is forecast to increase from £4.3m at the end of 2019-20 to £5.1m at the end of 2020-21.”

Marium Haque, Deputy Director, Education and Learning at Bradford Council, told the Telegraph & Argus: “The school has worked closely with us on a financial improvement plan to bring its annual expenditure down.

“As for many schools, management of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been financially challenging.

“The school continues to work with us to reduce its in-year expenditure in a planned and measured way, which minimises disruption of the education of pupils and which supports the school’s management of the impact of the pandemic.

“However, it will take a long time to recover the deficit that has accumulated over many years.”

Ian Murch, President of Bradford District’s National Education Union said there was currently a major struggle to prevent the school’s deficit from rising ever higher, let alone reducing it.

He said: “The deficit is so big, it is a real problem for everyone.

“It is disappointing this problem has gone on for so long.

“Another issue is that if a trust does now take on the school, the Council will be left with this debt.

“People have worked very hard to make improvements at the school, and results have improved, but the problem is getting it into a stable financial situation.”

He said Covid was putting a financial strain on all schools, even ones with an otherwise healthy financial outlook.

This included having to provide new cleaning equipment and staff, introducing social distancing measures and, at larger schools, extra staff to supervise pupils to make sure they don’t mix bubbles.

Mr Murch said: “This is all putting extra pressure on school finances.”

He feels the Council should appoint someone whose main focus is to work to reduce the school’s deficit.

He added: “You have to look at how to eventually reduce the deficit, but also urgently slow down the rate at which the debt is increasing."