Angela Watkinson

Conservative Party | Upminster

School funding crisis highlighted by debate

Upminster Member of Parliament, Angela Watkinson, has backed a debate in the House of Commons yesterday highlighting the funding crisis facing schools in Havering.

Mrs Watkinson said: "The Government blames local education authorities for not passing on to schools the extra money it claims has been provided but what the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, Mr Charles Clarke, forgets is that his Cabinet colleagues have been raiding school coffers to finance their own over spending.

"Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Gordon Brown, is taking extra cash - an estimated £150,000 per secondary school and proportionate amounts for primary schools - through the increase in national Insurance that came in to force in April and also through extra contributions to the teachers' pension fund.

"The crisis hitting pension funds was also caused by the Chancellor who, in one of his first moves when he took power in 1997, removed from pension funds the benefits they had to receive dividends on their investments tax free to further boost their reserves.

"I know from talking to senior councillors that Havering Borough Council is allocating slightly more that 100 per cent of the money it receives for education directly in schools, so the accusations made by the DfES do not apply to Havering. I also know from talking to Headteachers that because of the extra increases on their staffing costs there is still not enough cash to do the job.

"Staffing accounts for over 80 per cent of the average school budget, particularly in schools where most of the staff are experienced. This leaves no flexibility for significant savings on school budgets.

"Cutting back on books and resources, maintenance and repairs are short term measures that save small sums - the only real savings come from reducing staffing levels.

"Havering school value their staff and wish to avoid redundancies but the truth is that to balance the books they are having to leave vacant posts unfilled and look seriously at other options like reorganising year groups and cutting back on support staff or subsidies on music lessons.

"That makes a mockery of Prime Minister Tony Blair's statement in 1997 that his top priorities were Education, Education, Education - if he is to deliver on that pledge then he needs to get a Chancellor who shares his vision."