Education Funding: Tower Hamlets (Hansard, 3 May 1994)

§ The Minister of State, Department for Education (Baroness Blatch)
My Lords, Tower Hamlets is receiving support for expenditure of over £528,000 for 1994–95 under the GEST 19 programme for raising standards in inner city schools. That is the fourth highest share out of 27 local education authorities and accounts for some 6.6 per cent. of the total moneys available. Tower Hamlets' allocation meets in full the local education authority's bid for an increase of £177,000 over its 1993–94 allocation for reading recovery.

§ Baroness David
My Lords, yes, I understand that. But can the Minister say why this particular funding was removed before 31st March 1995, when the City Lit had been asked to produce a development plan for the three years from March 1992 to March 1995? Does she realise how very successful this project has been; how much both the parents and children in the Bethnal Green City Challenge area were getting; and how very disappointed they are that it has been broken before the three years are up?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, Tower Hamlets bid for over £½ million for reading recovery and, as I said in my initial Answer, received that amount in full. The project that the noble Baroness talks about is very important and is working well. The sum that was bid for was £79,000. We believe that we have the priority right, and that helping young people to raise the standard of literacy in Tower Hamlets—which was their own priority—was important. But it also has to be said that the total budget for Tower Hamlets is £248 million. That is 4.35 per cent. above 1993–94—an extra £10.4 million. If Tower Hamlets believes that £79,000, as against £248 million, is the difference between continuing the project and not continuing it, I believe that it is very much a matter for the authority to deem its own priority in this area.

§ Lord Northbourne
My Lords, does the noble Baroness accept that 56 per cent. of the pupils in Tower Hamlets are Bangladeshi, and in many schools it is 100 per cent.; and will she take my word for it that many of those that I have met are extremely intelligent, bright, 1012 competitive and ambitious—all qualities that we need in our commerce and industry? Does she further accept the importance of investing in these children, and thereby investing in the economy of this country in the future?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I absolutely agree with the noble Lord in what he has just said. That is precisely why we fund Tower Hamlets at 50 per cent. more than the average for any other pupil in the rest of the whole of the country. It is precisely because of the challenges that are faced by Tower Hamlets, as set out by the noble Lord, that we do that. As I said, Tower Hamlets has received 50 per cent. more per pupil to spend on the children there; and it had a higher increase over the past year, as I said, than almost any other LEA in the country.

§ Lord Judd
My Lords, will the Minister accept that there is a good deal of evidence on this project that not only was there improved performance on the part of the children concerned—which was very significant—but that it was making a very important contribution to improved race relations and the integration of a significant ethnic minority? For those reasons, would she feel able, together with her officials, to look at this specific scheme again to see whether it can be protected?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I have to say that not only is Tower Hamlets funded at a higher rate than every other local education authority in the country, but it also received the lion's share of the grants for education, support and training moneys that were available. I said that it received over £½ million for one of its bids, which was met in full. We are talking here about £79,000. If Tower Hamlets wants to continue what is an important and successful project, it would seem reasonable that out of £248 million—10.4 million more over 1993–94 and an increase of 4.35 per cent. —if it regards the project as having that high a priority and given that it has been treated more favourably than most other local authorities, it should meet that cost itself.

§ Baroness David
My Lords, I do hope that the Minister might consider what my noble friend suggested and have a look at this project. It is the parents who ate so involved. It is helping the families. It is helping the families, the parents and the children. Would she consider going down to have a talk with them to see in fact what they are doing?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, my department has done just that, and reports back that it is a good and successful project. But money is finite. We have to consider the whole of the country, and give just as much serious consideration to the rest of the country as we do to Tower Hamlets. The work in Tower Hamlets has been considered so important that it is funded, as I said, at 50 per cent. more than most other local authorities; and it has received in full its bid for a priority that is very important—namely, to aid the reading and writing skills of young people in that authority. Again, setting 1013 £79,000 against a budget of £248 million, I believe that it would be possible for Tower Hamlets to meet that cost itself.