SCHOOL governing bodies across Ceredigion are “likely” to have to make compulsory redundancies to hit a savings target imposed by the county council, education chiefs have admitted.

As part of the council’s budget-setting process for 2018/19, the learning services department has targeted savings of just over £1m from school governing bodies with each individual governing body having to decide how to make those cuts.

But while the decision will not be taken by the council, Matthew Brown, the head of learning services, has admitted that it is likely to force schools into making compulsory redundancies.

An assessment of the savings demand in budget papers due to go before council scrutiny committees yesterday and today, says that the impact is “not known at this stage, i.e. before governing bodies have made their individual decisions, but likely to include compulsory redundancies in 2018”.

The warning that school staff members could be made redundant will spark concern across the county with schools already having cut posts in recent years as part of cost-cutting measures.

The savings target for governing bodies is just one area that council departments are aiming to cut costs with service redesigns, scrapping some services that councils are not legally required to provide, further closures or charging for public toilets and fee increases all proposed as part of the draft budget for 2018/19.

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