HC Deb 30 October 2003 vol 412 cc427-8
10. David Taylor (North-West Leicestershire)

What assessment he has made of the impact of the 2003–04 grant settlement on (a) staff numbers and (b) standards in schools in north-west Leicestershire; and if he will make a statement. [135241]

The Secretary of State for Education and Skills (Mr. Charles Clarke)

I acknowledge the funding difficulties that schools in some areas have experienced this year. My Department collects statistics on teacher numbers, vacancies and support staff numbers each January, and the provisional results are published in the spring. The measures that I announced yesterday are designed to deliver stability in school budgets over the next two years. Local education authorities and schools should now work together to ensure that the resources made available for schools are used effectively to achieve the highest possible standards of education.

David Taylor

Although the Government have a good track record on education between 1997 and 2003, the new formula spending share cements Leicestershire firmly at the foot of the funding league table—5 per cent. adrift of our neighbours, 6 per cent. adrift of the average county and 13 per cent. adrift of the national average. The Secretary of State's statement yesterday on funding for 2004–06 was welcome, but will he see me as a matter of urgency to discuss the clear, present and severe difficulties that some of north-west Leicestershire's schools are having in maintaining staffing numbers and high educational standards in a cash-strapped local education authority? The envisaged level of transitional grant will, I fear, be seriously inadequate.

Mr. Clarke

I am happy to meet my hon. Friend—indeed, I met an all-party delegation from Leicestershire some months ago—but I hope that he will acknowledge that the targeted transitional grant of £3.7 million estimated for stage 2 in Leicestershire amounts to a significant change that will allow us to move forward. I hope that he will also acknowledge the responsibility of the local education authority in Leicestershire to discuss with schools, including those in my hon. Friend's constituency, the best way of maintaining precisely the sort of educational progress that he describes.