Education Funding (Leicestershire)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 8:20 pm on 14 March 2005.

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Photo of Andrew Robathan Andrew Robathan Shadow Minister (Defence) 8:20, 14 March 2005

I have already said that I think deprivation has a part to play. I shall mention other issues shortly, but I have a list here, from which I see that North-East Lincolnshire—the first authority that I have stumbled across—receives 10.7 per cent. more funding per pupil than Leicestershire. The hon. Gentleman may think that that is reasonable, but I do not. I shall explain why in a moment.

The transitional funding offered by the Government does not get Leicestershire out of its difficulties, either. In the current financial year, which is about to end, Leicestershire receives £3.5 million. In the coming financial year it will receive only £1.8 million, despite being the lowest-funded education authority in the country.

Let me say something about city pupils. My constituency marches with the city. I think Loughborough does as well, but perhaps it does not, in which case my constituency is the only one that does. Across the borders of the city every day come nearly 4,600 pupils, because—I am afraid—Leicestershire provides better education, notwithstanding the vast amounts that have been poured into the city for whatever reasons. The point is that the money allocated per pupil to the city does not travel with the child. Nor, indeed, does the city receive the funding. Money allocated to education through the formula spending share disappears back to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. That does not seem right. Either the children deserve the money spent on them which the Chancellor of the Exchequer and various other Departments put aside at one stage, or they do not.

Let me say something about the so-called school work force agenda. Because of the Government's policies, other burdens are about to fall on schools at the same time as lower funding. What is described as PPA—planning preparation and assessment—is a jolly good policy, and I am all for it, but it has to be funded. As of September, schools will have to cater for it. Many schools have written to the Government to say that they will be unable to bear the costs. Perhaps the Minister will tell me how many Leicestershire schools have written to the Secretary of State. I understand that 10,000 parents have signed a petition which they will send to No. 10 Downing street, although I have not yet seen it. A high school and a primary school—I will not name them, because I have not spoken to their head teachers—have applied to the county council asking to go into deficit until 2008.

Classroom assistants are also not funded in Leicestershire. I visit schools where I am told that the classroom assistants are having to be laid off. The cost of a teacher is determined by a national pay scale, so the cost is the same in Leicestershire as it is in Leicester city. Staff costs comprise between 80 and 85 per cent. of the costs of most schools. We accept that there are regional differentials—London is probably more expensive, and I would guess that people there are paid a supplement—but the cost of computers, heating, books, grass-cutting and whatever else requires expenditure is basically the same. Although local differentials exist, the current system exaggerates them.

David Taylor mentioned sparsity. There is a good deal of sparsity in the village schools that are scattered around his constituency and mine. We understand that Leicestershire is prosperous, but why must it be penalised to such an extent? We also understand that someone will be a loser: someone will be at the bottom of the pile. What I want to know is how such a differential can be justified.

Worse still, the county council tells me that the new system that is out for consultation—I think it is in the Education Bill, which we have just been discussing—will make matters worse.