Children’s services at risk as councils raid schools reserves

Councils across England have burned through a fifth of the reserves earmarked for schools and special needs pupils in a single year, in the latest sign of the cash crisis facing local government.The huge raid on schools reserves – the highest figure for more than a decade – meant they fell by half a billion pounds in the last financial year, according to figures published by the government.Schools reserves fell from more than £2.3bn at the start of the financial year to £1.8bn by the end of it. This comes after an Observer investigation revealed that operators of academies, which are not controlled by local authorities, were also sounding the alarm over cuts – with some needing emergency cash advances from the government to keep running.Four councils – Bury, Cumbria, Bournemouth and Kingston – have experienced such severe overspends that their schools reserves have been wiped out and gone into deficit, with councils likely to raid other pots of money to plug the gap.