Education: Grant Maintained Schools (Hansard, 11 June 1990)

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, the first 18 grant maintained schools started in September 1989. By September 1990 there will be at least 41 in existence. Therefore the grant maintained sector will have more than doubled in size within one year.

§ Lord Gainford
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that encouraging Answer. When applications are made for grant maintained status is the general attitude of local education authorities encouraging or obstructive?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, we regret that some LEAs have certainly chosen in the past to be obstructive. I am sure noble Lords will agree that it is very much in the interests of all our children that 8 LEAs are co-operative in this matter. However, an increasing number of local education authorities are showing signs of being very much more co-operative. Indeed, the Secretary of State had a meeting only the other day with chairmen of education committees in the South East who declared wholehearted support for the principle of grant maintained status.

§ Baroness David
My Lords, does not the Minister agree that, if a local education authority's plans for reorganisation are totally put out if grant maintained status for a school is approved, that rather naturally means that it is not pleased? Does she realise that in the case of the Beechen Cliff School in Avon, to which the Secretary of State has just given permission for grant maintained status, 453 individuals and 17 school governing bodies, including many primary schools, objected? Is that not rather a lot of parents who want a different outcome? Does the Minister agree that after the Beechen Cliff decision, decisions for grant maintained status depend entirely on the caprice of the Secretary of State and nothing else?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I can assure the noble Baroness that all factors are taken into account. They would include the views of people in the local community, of the schools, of the governors and of the parents. After those factors are taken into account, decisions are then made. Only this morning, for example, Highwood School had its application for grant maintained status rejected on the grounds that the application was believed to be damaging to provision in that area.

§ Baroness Blackstone
My Lords, will the noble Baroness say what the average per capita expenditure is in the existing 18 grant maintained schools that have been established and how it compares with the average per capita expenditure in LEA county schools?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I cannot be specific for each of those schools because the spending per pupil in each LEA differs between LEAs and between schools. However, I can promise that average and specific spending figures will be sent to the noble Baroness. Funding of grant maintained schools is carried out on precisely the same basis as for other schools within an LEA's control. The only difference is that grant maintained schools are allowed to spend a percentage of the moneys that would normally have been spent centrally, which is an average of 15 per cent. That additional money is often put to much better use when it is spent by a grant maintained school as an individual institution.

§ Baroness Blackstone
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness for offering to send me the figures that she is unable to give today. Although I accept that she cannot give precise figures today, does she accept that the average per capita expenditure in grant maintained schools is higher than in county schools and that that builds in inequities in the funding of the education of our secondary school pupils?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, if the figure is higher, that can only be due to the fact that the grant maintained schools spend an additional 15 per cent. of money that would normally be spent centrally. Therefore that says something about what is being spent centrally rather than on schools themselves. There is a criticism that too much money is being spent by local education authorities centrally and not w here it really matters, which is at the chalk face to benefit children.

§ The Earl of Onslow
My Lords, will my noble friend confirm that there is a great discrepancy here? It is false to attribute costs per pupil because in some areas more money is spent on administration than on teaching. There have been cases recently where teachers have been asked to leave while administrators have been recruited. That cannot be good for education.

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, that is precisely the point I have just made. The grant maintained schools are putting that 15 per cent. of money which was previously spent on bureaucratic matters to better use. The money that is being held centrally is perhaps not reaching the areas that it should reach which is the schools.

§ Baroness David
My Lords, does the Minister agree that all the money that is held centrally by LEAs has been approved by the Department of Education? Every local authority has to submit its plans for funding schools and the amount that is held back is approved by the Department of Education.

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I understand that there is an understanding between the government department and schools. However, many local education authorities are still withholding too much money centrally.

§ Lord Milverton
My Lords, does my noble friend agree that there is a place for grant maintained schools and they need encouragement and support? Does she further agree that they need not operate to the detriment of other schools?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, my noble friend makes a good point. It is possible for grant maintained schools to work happily and constructively alongside other schools within local education authorities. The Government are enthusiastic about this policy and hope that local education authorities and grant maintained schools will work together in the interests of the children.

§ Lord Taylor of Blackburn
My Lords, does the Minister not agree that grant-maintained schools do not contribute in the same way as many state schools to community activities such as school orchestras, regional and county orchestras and other cultural activities?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I simply cannot agree. The evidence so far shows that grant-maintained schools are playing their full part within the community.

§ Lord Monkswell
My Lords, if it is acceptable for the school to take from the local education authority the sum of money that would normally be spent centrally, would it not also be right for a local education authority to have the proportion of money that is spent nationally by the DES to spend on its local schools?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, the money received by education authorities from national and local sources is considerable. If the noble Lord means that there is a case for reducing bureaucracy at both national and local level I have to agree with him.