HC Deb 12 July 1994 vol 246 cc816-7
6. Mr. David Atkinson

To ask the Secretary of State for Education by how much Dorset's education standard spending assessment has increased in 1994–95 over the previous year in percentage terms.

Mr. Forth

Allowing for local authority changes of function, Dorset's education standard spending assessment is 4.2 per cent. higher in 1994–95 than it was last year. That is a higher than average increase across the counties.

Mr. Atkinson

Is my hon. Friend aware that the 4.2 per cent., which follows the 27 per cent. increase for the previous three years and which is well ahead of the rate of inflation, will come as some surprise to primary school teachers in my constituency and to those in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth, West (Mr. Butterfill), who were led to believe by Dorset local education authority that the fact that they have to face classes of up to 35 is due to a lack of Government funding? Will the Minister join us in welcoming the recommendation of the Local Government Commission that Bournemouth should once again be responsible for its own schools? Will he assure us that any future Bournemouth education standard spending assessment will better reflect the needs and costs of an urban area rather than those of the west country, which is currently the case?

Mr. Forth

I am sure that, guided by my hon. Friends who so ably represent Bournemouth, the people of Bournemouth will make known to the commission their support for the recommendation. That is the best thing that they can do at this stage, following what my hon. Friend said. I agree that it is disgraceful that a large number of local education authorities pretend that, somehow, cuts in the money given to them by central Government are responsible for their mismanagement of local education. I join my hon. Friend in alerting people to the fact that under many of the new administrations that people so innocently elected a year ago something is rotten in the state of education.

Mr. Don Foster

In view of that answer, can the Minister explain why the Under-Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Hornchurch (Mr. Squire), told a delegation from Dorset on 9 March that there were insufficient funds available to meet the educational needs of the children of Dorset?

Mr. Forth

I shall have to discuss that matter with my hon. Friend to find out whether what the hon. Gentleman says is true. Knowing my hon. Friend as well as I think I do, and even allowing for his age increase since that meeting, I doubt whether what the hon. Gentleman says is the case.

Every local education authority in the country is funded on exactly the same basis, derived from the same formula, in an even-handed way. One point on which I do agree with the hon. Gentleman is that there is an enormous variation in the efficiency and effectiveness with which local education authorities deploy the funds given to them.