Grant Maintained Schools: Financial Management (Hansard, 9 March 1993)

§ The Minister of State, Department for Education (Baroness Blatch)
My Lords, when considering applications for grant maintained status, my right honourable friend takes into account all relevant factors including the school's ability to manage its financial affairs as a grant maintained school.

§ Baroness David
My Lords, in that case, will the Minister tell me whether the Tory-controlled Surrey County Council will carry the debt of £198,000 which four schools had run up before they became grant maintained in April 1992?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, it is entirely the responsibility of Surrey County Council to ensure that its schools do not overspend. In fact, schools are not allowed to plan for a deficit and Surrey County Council should not condone it.

§ Lord Jenkins of Hillhead
My Lords, is the Minister aware that if the Government were a school, they would not begin to meet the conditions for opting out?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I believe that this House has much more confidence in governors of schools and would not dare to be patronising about them.

§ Baroness Young
My Lords, does my noble friend agree that many grant maintained schools manage their financial affairs considerably better than when they were managed under local authorities?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, my noble friend is right. There is increasing evidence that that is the case.

§ Lord Parry
My Lords, can the noble Baroness tell the House whether it is now mandatory for teachers to study management studies as part of their course or whether it is intended that they should?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, it is not mandatory but it is in any case good that teachers should learn the elements of management when training, whether they are managing the classroom, the children or the resources which they have to manage when they are in teaching. It is also good as preparation for posts of responsibility, whether as heads of departments or heads of schools.

§ Lord Parry
My Lords, will the noble Baroness accept that many of us have great confidence in the 918 abilities of teachers but feel that they lack the support they should have in order to discharge their responsibilities?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I absolutely agree with the noble Lord, they do. Many of our teachers are natural managers but more could be done in their initial training to make sure that they are properly equipped, not just for teaching children but for managing the process of teaching children.

§ Viscount Eccles
My Lords, sound financial management requires experience, and quite often training. Can my noble friend assure me that all head teachers are offered such training?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I can assure my noble friend that training funds are given directly by government for training not only of head teachers but also heads of department and teachers in order to help them manage their financial affairs.

§ Lord Glenamara
My Lords, what makes the noble Baroness think that she can manage the schools better than the local authorities who have been doing it successfully for 91 years?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I do not believe that we can manage them better than the schools themselves. I believe that it is the schools themselves—their governors, the heads and the staff—in whom we should vest the responsibility for management, not in politicians and, indeed, not in local politicians.

§ Lord Judd
My Lords, does the noble Baroness agree that there is a loophole whereby a school that opts out of local authority control at the end of the financial year in April can build up large debts to the local education authority which cannot be recovered? If that happens, what would the Secretary of State do to put the situation right?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, if the local authority is doing its job, it should not wait until the end of a financial year to be aware that a school is overspending its budget. Most local education authorities have provisions in place to see that they monitor the spending of their schools month by month. They are responsible for them and the schools are accountable for the proper management of their funds. To condone deficit planning is simply wrong and therefore the responsibility and obligation would be for the LEA and not for the Government.

§ Baroness David
My Lords, can the Minister tell me what is the responsibility of the governors in a school under local management? When that school becomes grant maintained, presumably the governors will have total responsibility for any debts they run up.

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, the responsibility of governors, whether in LEA maintained schools or grant maintained schools, is to manage within the budget. Governors in an LEA maintained school are accountable to the local education authority for the proper management of its budget. Governors in a 919 grant maintained school, until the funding agency comes along, are responsible to my department for the proper management of their budget.