§ Mr. Ron Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how much extra money has been available to Cumbria county council education committee on the basis of educational priority area policy, in each of the last three years; whether all resources made available were taken up by the authority; and if she will make a statement.
§ Miss Margaret JacksonMy Department does not define educational priority areas. As my hon. Friend will know, the main central Goverment instrument for channelling financial support to local authorities is the rate support grant, which is a block grant in aid of local government services as a whole. Under the social priority schools allowance scheme adminstered by the Burnham Committee, which was introduced to attract and retain teachers in schools, both rural and urban, which satisfy certain criteria of deprivation, 51 schools were designated in the Cumbria local education authority at a cost to the authority of £130,000 in each of the years 1975–76 and 1976–77, for salary supplements to the teachers in those schools. The cost for 1977–78 is not yet known.