A SWINDON school says it has been forced to make redundancies as a result of poor Government funding.

Dorcan Academy says its current financial situation is resulting in forced and voluntary redundancies among its support staff.

And the GMB union confirmed yesterday it has been contacted by many of its members at a variety of schools across Swindon who are concerned about the situation.

Chris Watts, Wiltshire and Swindon branch president for the GMB, blamed 'unhealthy and destructive' competition now being created by the academy system.

For many years, the town has received less cash per pupil than many other areas, a problem the government tried to address earlier this year.

However, Dorcan says its current financial situation has led to a re-organisation within the school.

Headteacher Sherryl Bareham said: “From time to time we have restructures but the financial situation means we had to move that forward to make sure we are more cost effective.

“As a result we have had to make several redundancies. These have not come from teaching staff.

“But in some areas we have strengthened and we put the needs of our students first.”

Most of the secondary schools in Swindon are academies but Isambard School, the only one under local authority control, has also said it works hard to keep control of its cash-flow.

“Educational Funding is an issue in these times of austerity,” said Isambard headteacher Sue Banks.

“Swindon is particularly challenged as we are one of the most poorly funded local authorities from central government.

“For Isambard Community School this means that all of our expenditure is under constant review in order to ensure best value for money, whilst maintaining standards.”

Mr Watts described the change to academies for Swindon’s secondary schools as helping to create "a downward spiral that destroys careers and saps staff morale."

He said: "The system doesn’t serve our members or our town well as is evidenced by the average secondary education results attained in Swindon when compared nationally.

“There needs to be a fairer funding system that does not punish struggling schools as it is the supporting staff that disproportionately bear the brunt and it’s the students of Swindon that are paying the price.”

In March a full review funding was carried out by Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, which increased the amount of cash schools in Swindon get for each pupil to address the inequalities.

The Department of Education has said it is the role of school leaders to manage their finances.

A spokesman said: “We have protected the core schools budget in real terms, so that as pupil numbers increase, so will the amount of money in our schools.

"At the same time we are making funding fairer, and have consulted on proposals for a new national funding formula to address the historic unfairness in the system.

"This comes after we allocated an extra £4.3 million funding to Swindon’s schools, equivalent to £148 per pupil, and this funding will continue in 2016-17.

“Academies are funded on the same, per pupil basis as maintained schools, and we trust heads, governors and academy trusts to manage their budgets and plan their staffing appropriately.”