Sarah Cassidy: Now for the return of the four-day week

Heads say teachers will have to be laid off unless Charles Clarke comes up with more cash

Head teachers are on the warpath. While the Government argues that it is putting record amounts of cash into schools, heads say that they will have to make teachers redundant because they don't have enough money for next year.

The row is expected to come to a head tomorrow when Charles Clarke addresses the Secondary Heads Association (SHA), the first time he has attended a teachers' union conference since becoming Education Secretary. According to general secretary, John Dunford, there is a very real funding problem because school budgets need to increase by at least 10 per cent to stand still next year.

The alarm bells have been sounding. Croydon heads have already warned parents that a cash crisis could put children on a four-day week because of cuts of up to £750,000 next year – equivalent to 30 teachers' salaries. In Barnet, north London, heads claim that up to 240 teachers' jobs could be lost. The Government, however, rejects these complaints, arguing that a budget rise of 8.5 per cent is ample.

"People are getting worried about their funding for the next financial year," says Dunford. "Their budgets are bigger but you need at least 10 per cent extra to stand still. People are saying there is simply not enough and many areas are having problems."

Increases to National Insurance contributions, changes to staff pensions, teachers' pay rises and the new agreement to cut teacher workload – all add to the costs for schools. Schools also complain that a new government-funding formula has redistributed money from local education authorities in the south to those in the north.

Additional pay boosts for teachers in inner London are stretching the budgets of many schools. And the £1bn workload deal agreed between ministers and trade unions could put extra pressure on school budgets. From September, teachers' contracts will change. They will no longer be required to do basic administrative tasks such as photocopying, and heads will be forced to hire extra staff.

"The changes will be in teachers' contracts and will have to go ahead whether schools have the money or not," says Dunford. "Heads cannot simply delay because they don't have the money. We are continually pressuring the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) on this. We signed up to the agreement on the understanding that additional funding would be available. We will continue to put pressure on ministers to ensure that the money is there."

The biggest teaching union, the National Union of Teachers, refused to sign the deal, fearing that it would allow classroom assistants to take classes without a trained teacher. But Dunford argues that this is not an issue for secondary heads.

Funding is not the only thing on heads' minds. Twelve months ago secondary heads were on the brink of industrial action over performance-related pay. It was the first time such action had been contemplated in the SHA's history. In the event, the dispute was settled at the 11th hour when funding was increased by £100m.

Dunford is now unhappy with that settlement. Some schools are unable to fund the rises; the system is "unsustainable" and must be redesigned, he says. That aside, he is delighted with the new direction the DfES is taking under Clarke. He likes his stance on specialist schools, the education of 14 to 19-year-olds and his crackdown on bad behaviour and exclusions.

Dunford also believes ministers have finally understood that British youngsters are the most examined in the world. "We have been saying this for years, but it's only now the Government recognises that we were right."

education@independent.co.uk