In a report, the watchdog revealed that the proportion of maintained schools that reported a deficit more than doubled in 2019-20 with an estimated 11% reporting a cumulative deficit, up from 5% in 2014-15.

For school finances at the local authority level, the report shows that the total deficit was £675m in 2019-20, which is an increase of £664m since 2014-15.

A larger proportion of maintained secondary schools have been in deficit than primary schools. The proportion of secondary schools reporting a deficit peaked at 30% in 2017-18, falling to 27% in 2019-20. In contrast, the proportion of primary schools in deficit was 10% in 2019-20, although this was up from 4% in 2014-15.