HEADTEACHERS have been been questioned after it was revealed that schools in Worcestershire failed to spend more than £13 million of funding last year.

The sum was left sitting in school coffers instead of being spent on pupils during the 2005/06 financial year.

Now Worcestershire County Council has demanded answers from the 43 schools sitting on the biggest bank balances. Schools are advised to save a certain amount of cash - eight per cent of the total budget in secondary schools, and five per cent in nurseries and primary schools - in a rainy day fund.

But if they are found to have saved more, county officers can demand answers.

During 2004/04 £13.7 million was left unspent.

In Birmingham, seven schools were told to hand money back after it was discovered the amount of funds held on to by schools was more than £50 million.

In Worcestershire, balances carried forward were as much as £479,540 by Droitwich Spa High School, £248,234 at Cherry Orchard Primary and £319,409 at Blessed Edward Oldcorne Catholic College. A county council spokesman said none of the schools had been asked to hand cash back.

At the other end of the scale, some schools started the financial year in debt, including Perry Wood Primary School, which carried over a debt of £94,771, and Nunnery Wood High School which was £37,698 in the red.

Nunnery Wood headteacher Alun Williams said: "We spend all the money we have on the students we have in the school at the time and it is our policy not to carry forward any money.

"This makes us vulnerable to particular circumstances and in the financial year in question, we were hit with a couple of long-term sicknesses of a number of staff and this topped us over the edge. We have recovered the deficit now."

The figures have sparked concerns from Worcester MP Mike Foster, who said: "How can some schools increase their reserves and say they need more cash? I will argue for cash but that's because I want cash to be spent on kids, not put into reserves."

Councillor Liz Eyre, Worcestershire's cabinet member for children and young people, said the council's membership of the F40 group - which campaigns for fairer funding for the county - would be questioned if schools were not spending all their money.

Helen Donovan, parent campaigner for the F40 group, said: "It sounds an awful lot of money but if you look at somewhere like Birmingham they have about £50 million and they are supposed to be an area of additional needs which is why they get extra funding.

"If they are an area of additional needs why have they got these huge reserves?"

Sean Devlin, headteacher of Blessed Edward's, said reserves were important.

He said: "Some people will say we should spend the money on pupils now, but if we were to adopt that children would be in the same accommodation from the 1960s when we were built."

Jeremy Harwood, headteacher of Cherry Orchard Primary, said they kept a reserve in case of a drop in funding caused by a fall in pupil numbers, and they also had a long-term project to re-build three classrooms.

The schools with large reserves in the bank included: Abberley Parochial Primary, Badsey First, Bretforton First, Callow End CofE Primary, Claines CofE Primary, Crowle CorE First, Defford-cum-Besford CofE First, Westlands First, Chawson Community First, St Andrew's First, Fairfield First, Kempsey Primary, Malvern Link CofE Primary, Tenbury CofE Primary, Upton-upton-Severn CofE Primary, Cherry Orchard Primary, Northwick Manor Primary, Red Hill CofE Primary, Blackminster Middle, St Egwin's CofE Middle, Droitwich Spa High, Prince Henry's High, Tenbury High, Bishop Perowne CofE College, Blessed Edward Oldcorne Catholic College.

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