Charles Clarke has today published an analysis of Local Education Authority budgets for 2003-04.

The education secretary says it shows that over £590 million that had not yet been passed on to schools.

Forum Response: Association of Teachers and Lecturers

Gerald Imison, ATL's joint acting general secretary, said: "The good news is that Charles Clarke seems to be taking very seriously the cash crisis in schools; the bad news is that individual schools are not seeing any more cash and while this continues staff redundancies move nearer.

"ATL will only be satisfied when the bean counters stop arguing over the size and numbers of their beans and move them out to the starving consumers. Teachers and parents don't care who is holding on to what money. The crucial fact is that it is not in schools being used for the education of pupils.

"Stage one of the exercise may have been completed, but ATL cannot accept that there has been a solution until adequate funds are in schools. The department has little time and we urge it to move very quickly to use the information it now has to unlock the system and get funding into school budgets.

"Only then can the professionals make proper judgements on the adequacy of the government's funding provisions."

Forum Response: National Union of Teachers

Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "The schools funding crisis is a poisonous combination of government incompetence, funding shortfall and spin.

"The only priority must be for schools to receive sufficient funding to pay for the staffing, books and equipment they need.

"There may well be local authorities holding back too much but this is unsurprising given the funding fog generated by government.

"Many schools face having to run deficit budgets this year to survive. They must not suffer penalties for that.

"If Charles Clarke says that his investigation exercise is not to apportion blame then he should accept the consequences of that exercise.

"I call on him to stand ready to draw on government contingency funding to give a further cash injection to schools to prevent redundancies and loss of posts."

Forum Response: Local Government Association

Sir Jeremy Beecham, chair of the Local Government Association, said: "It is clear from the DfES's analysis, and our own discussions with local councils this week, that there are many sensible reasons why some funds are yet to be allocated to schools. Local councils are not holding back millions - much of these funds are being allocated quite legitimately to a range of educational needs and some are due to be distributed later in the year.

"Local councils are working with local school heads and new Schools Forums to make sure that the particular educational needs of local areas are being met - the DfES needs to have more faith in these local decision-making processes.

"Of course, these lead to variations in spending between schools and between authorities. Different schools and different parts of the country have different needs, particularly in relation to special needs pupils - the most vulnerable young people in our education system.

"A major change in the funding system has caused turbulence for both schools and Local Education Authorities.

"The LGA welcomes the rewards to excellent teachers but calls on government to work with us and local councils to ensure that the additional costs of teachers' pay are being fully met by central government provision.

"It is legitimate for the government to ask councils to explain any apparent anomalies but for our part the LGA wants to re-examine with the government the cost of pressures on education budgets and the extent to which they have not been covered by this year's funding formula and grant."