Schools trust outlines plan to cut £9m deficit

100 TEACHING JOBS NO LONGER ON THE LINE - AT LEAST UNTIL SUMMER

- NICK HORNER News Reporter

Members of the National Education Union on a picket line outside the Arthur Terry Learning Partnership in Sutton Coldfield

THE boss of a troubled Birmingham-based schools trust has confirmed the scale of its debt and how it plans to repair its finances.

Lee Miller, the interim chief executive officer of the Arthur Terry Learning Partnership (ATLP), wrote to parents after compulsory job cuts were taken off the table - for now.

He confirmed the trust, which is responsible for 24 schools across the West Midlands, was in almost £9 million of debt at the end of last August.

But that figure will have risen as there was an “approved in-year deficit for 25/26”, meaning the trust continued to spend more than it received.

The black hole is the reason the trust announced plans last October to shed a number of jobs, rumoured to be 100 or more, across its six secondary schools, 17 primary schools and one all-through special school.

The proposed cuts led to the National Education Union balloting members, with staff walking out for nine days across three weeks in protest.