Classroom helpers face cut in hours

Classroom assistants and support staff at a Black Country school could see their working hours slashed as part of measures to claw back £200,000, bosses announced today.

Menzies High School, West Bromwich, has announced the plans to slash hours after it emerged that a number of workers had already accepted voluntary redundancies. The science college, in Clarkes Lane, employs around 110 support staff, although it is not yet clear how many roles will be affected by the proposed new measures.

Teachers and other workers including dinner ladies, cleaners and admin staff have been told that their jobs are safe after weeks of consultation about clawing back the cash.

Headteacher Glen Goddard said that the school was doing "everything in its power" to avoid the forecast overspend without cutting jobs.

"We have identified a number of areas at risk. There will be no compulsory redundancies amongst our teaching staff," he said.

"However we are currently consulting with the support staff about significant alterations to their hours.

"So far three or four staff have had their applications for voluntary redundancies accepted."

Mr Goddard said that the school had already made some savings, but still had a further £60,000 to cut from its budget.

"In total we are hoping to make savings of £200,000 and so far we have identified about £140,000," he said. "This is not just through redundancies but also through efficiency savings. "We have looked at the amounts that we are spending on grounds maintenance and utilities as well as where we could cut cash spent on outside consultants and advisors.

"We have to look at adjusting hours and although until the consultation is finished it is difficult to say by how much and who would be affected."

One consultation into ways to claw back a potential deficit in the budget ended last week and a further consultation is now being held with support staff until March 20.

Menzies is one of six Sandwell schools currently failing to hit national targets for English and maths. Troubleshooting "intervention boards" are being sent into schools as part of emergency measures to improve grades under the Governments National Challenge programme.