§ Mr. Adleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he is satisfied with the provision of educational facilities in the maintained sector in east Dorset; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Chris PattenBroadly, yes. Although there are clearly some problems, our general impression is one of effective schools and teachers, supported by a coherent overall curricular policy, to which schools are responding well. Some encouraging examples of curricular innovation and inter-school collaboration are to be found there, some of these funded directly by central Government. As to the problems, my right hon. Friend recognises that policies of expenditure constraint over a number of years, in which education must play its part, have required difficult decisions by and within all local education authorities, 278W including those which, like Dorset, have shown their willingness to make efficiency savings in line with the views of the Government.