Category Archives: Education (local)

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18 Jul 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Education (local), Scrutiny, Spin, Transparency

John Crace, Guardian (humourist) columnist – but actually far, far too close to the truth.

“Left hand meet right hand. Just weeks after the prime minister insisted there was no extra spare cash for schools, the education secretary came to the Commons to make a statement on how she had miraculously found more money for schools.

Being a minority government is proving to be a very expensive drug habit for the Tories.

As is traditional with any U-turn, Justine Greening began by saying that everything was basically running brilliantly. Teachers had never been happier, pupils had never been happier.

Then came the but.

But she had listened to the concerns that people had raised during the election and had managed to come up with an extra £1.3bn over the next two years to offset any unfairness in a system that was definitely, totally fair.

“Let me be clear,” she said. “This is additional funding.” She had gone head-to-head with the chancellor, and Freewheelin’ Phil had blinked first. She’d tipped him upside down and a DUP-sized bung had fallen out of his pockets.

Only she hadn’t. At this point, Greening’s triumphal tone became more of the mumble of a remedial reading class. Barely audible were the words “efficiency savings”, “no cost to the taxpayer” and “transparently”.

So much of Greening’s statement had been barely audible that it took a while for the shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, to actually make any sense of what had been said.

Justine Greening raids free schools budget for £1.3bn education bailout
It was only after mistakenly welcoming the “new money” that it dawned on her that nothing about the money was new. She hastily corrected herself and inquired where the savings were going to be made. Had the government finally admitted that its free schools programme was a bit of a waste of money?

“We’re not cutting the free schools programme,” Greening replied. The very idea. “It’s just we’re financing it in a different way.”

In a way that it would have £200m less. Even some of her own backbenchers had the grace to look embarrassed by this. Either the education secretary didn’t understand basic maths or she didn’t understand basic English.

Conservative Robert Halfon, the new chair of the education select committee, was quick to spot that, even after cutting £200m from the free schools budget, there was still £1.1bn of savings unaccounted for. Did she have any idea what other programmes she would need to cut?

Not really, Greening replied. There were a lot of different programmes and sooner or later she would get round to working out which ones were pointless and then she’d make the cuts accordingly. All she could promise for now was that the savings would definitely come in at £1.3bn in total.

It was quite some admission, as Greening rather fancies her chances of taking over from Theresa May.

Telling parliament she had been presiding over a government department that has been happily wasting £1.3bn a year, without feeling the need to do anything about it up till now, might not be the smartest job interview. There again, she isn’t up against the stiffest of opposition. The gene pool of available talent in the Conservative party is vanishingly small.

Having basically informed everyone that she wasn’t particularly good at her job, it was little surprise that everything rather went downhill for Greening from then on.

Labour’s Lucy Powell and the Liberal Democrats’ Ed Davey tried to help her out.

Let’s not worry about whether the £1.3bn was new or old money, they said. They understood that difference might be too nuanced for her. Let’s concentrate instead on the fact that £1.3bn is still going to be at least £1.7bn short of the figure the National Audit Office had said was required to maintain funding at its current levels, given rising costs and pupil numbers.

“Er …” Greening struggled. Er … All she could say was that under the new arrangements schools would be getting £1.3bn more than they had been getting an hour ago – apart from those whose budgets had been cut to provide the extra money for all the others – and it would be a big help if people could just be a bit more positive about the announcement.

Not even her own backbenchers could go along with that, and one after the other stood up to inquire if the unfairness in the funding formula would be addressed in their own constituencies.

Greening didn’t seem to have the answer to this. Or anything much. The government is now so weak that even what are intended to be good news statements are going down like a cup of cold sick.”

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2017/jul/17/tory-magic-money-tree-allows-justine-greening-to-splash-cash-on-schools

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17 Jul 2017

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Accountability, Education (local)

“More money for schools” con trick

There is no more money for schools – £1.3 million of the enormous free schools budget and money originally earmarked for new school buildings is being moved to the local authorities’ schools budget.

Robbing a very rich Peter to give a few crumbs to Paul!

“Justine Greening, the education secretary, has promised £1.3bn in funding for schools in England to head off a Conservative revolt, raiding the budget for free schools and new buildings to pay for the rise. …”

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jul/17/justine-greening-raids-free-schools-budget-for-education-bailout

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17 Jul 2017

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Austerity cuts, Education (local)

“Schools asking parents for ‘money via direct debit’ owing to cuts”

“Schools are asking parents for money via direct debit or large one-off payments because of cuts to funding, a mother has said at a rally in central London.

Hundreds of parents, children and teachers took part in the demonstration on Sunday as part of the campaign, Fair Funding for All Schools.

Jo Yurky, co-founder of the campaign, said she was aware of schools that had asked parents if they would be willing to make monthly payments of £20 to £50 or a one-off payment of £250.”

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jul/16/uk-schools-forced-to-ask-parents-for-money-due-to-cuts-mother-says

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8 Jul 2017

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Education (local)

Nearly 25% of teachers qualified since 2011 have quit

“Almost a quarter of the teachers who have qualified since 2011 have already left the profession, according to official figures that have prompted further concerns about the pressures on the profession.

Of those who qualified in 2011 alone, 31% had quit within five years of becoming teachers, the figures show.

The official rate of dropouts from the profession was published as the government came under pressure to relax the 1% pay cap that has been placed on teachers’ pay until 2020.

Analysis of official figures shows that more than 27,500 teachers who trained between 2011 and 2015 had already left the job by last year. It means that just over 23% of about 117,000 teachers who qualified over the period have left.

The figures follow complaints by Tory MPs that the overall schools budget is too small and needs to be increased.

Justine Greening, the education secretary, is known to be sympathetic to both relaxing the pay cap and increasing public spending on schools, but is one of a series of cabinet ministers making spending demands on Philip Hammond, the chancellor.

Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, who uncovered the figures showing the number of teachers leaving the profession, said they highlighted the “sheer scale of the crisis that the Tories have created in teacher recruitment and retention”.

“Teachers are leaving our classrooms in record numbers, and the crisis is getting worse year after year. We are now at the point that more teachers are leaving than staying,” she said. “The government has serious questions to answer on the impact of their policies such as the continued cap on public sector pay, and their failure to tackle the issues like excessive workload that affect teachers in the classroom.

“It is time that ministers finally admitted that we are at a crisis point, and came up with a proper plan of action to deal with it.”

… Recent analysis by the Education Policy Institute found teachers in England are working longer hours on average than in most other countries. Full-time teachers in England reported working 48.2 hours a week on average, including evenings and weekends.

It was 19% longer than the average elsewhere of 40.6 hours. Only Japan and Alberta reported longer average working hours than teachers in England.

The analysis found that half of full-time teachers work between 40 and 58 hours, while a fifth of teachers work 60 hours or more.

Teaching unions have been urging ministers to lift the pay cap. They also want to make it cheaper for teachers to train and to introduce measures to encourage teachers to stay in post in areas with significant recruitment problems.”

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jul/08/almost-a-quarter-of-teachers-who-have-qualified-since-2011-have-left-profession

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7 Jul 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Education (local), Local Enterprise Partnership

Tuition fees benefit University Vice-Chancellors not students

Owl says: two university vice-chancellor (Plymouth: £310,149 gross in 2015/16; Exeter: £400,000 (including £58,000 performance-related remuneration) and a college principal of a college (South Devon College) offering university-level courses (salary not found) are all amongst the 21 board members of our Local Enterprise Partnership.

“Tuition fees in England should be scrapped after becoming a “Frankenstein’s monster” that loads £50,000 or more in debt on to the backs of graduates, according to the architect of the last Labour government’s education reforms.

Andrew Adonis, the former adviser to Tony Blair who also served as an education minister, has used a column for the Guardian to attack the system of student finances, accusing the government of running a Ponzi scheme that leaves students in England with crippling debts.

“In my view, fees have now become so politically diseased, they should be abolished entirely,” Adonis writes in the Guardian.

Admitting that he was “largely responsible” for the structure of fees and loans, with repayments pegged to graduate incomes, Adonis complains that greedy university leaders have failed to improve teaching quality but still rewarded themselves handsomely.

“[Vice-chancellors] increased their own pay and perks as fast as they increased tuition fees, and are now ‘earning’ salaries of £275,000 on average and in some cases over £400,000.

“Debt levels for new graduates are now so high that the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that three-quarters of graduates will never pay it all back. The Treasury will soon realise it is sitting on a Ponzi scheme,” Adonis writes. …”

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jul/07/tuition-fees-should-be-scrapped-says-architect-of-fees-andrew-adonis

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4 Jul 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, DCC, Education (local), Inequality, Sidmouth/ Sidford/ Sidbury

Sidmouth mum exposes the reality of education cuts at primary academy school

Received by Owl:

“I wonder whether you’re aware/ could draw attention to the fallout from the budget cuts in our local school.

Parents discovered today that at Sidmouth Primary School funding cuts are having a direct impact on the children and structure of the school. They have had to reduce the number of classes in the school so children are being taught in mixed Year classes: Years 3&4; 5&6. This cost-cutting exercise means that teachers will be teaching an incredibly broad spread of abilities within the same class: they will have to differentiate hugely to cater for the weakest Year 5 and strongest Year 6 pupil for instance. Classes are heading towards 30 so it’s not as if these mixed groups are resulting in smaller groups.

When the school became an academy parents were told that this would mean more autonomy and access to more funds. This clearly has not materialised yet the former headteacher now seems to be sporting the title of ‘Executive Headteacher’. I imagine that his salary could cover the cost of a couple of those disbanded classes…”

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3 Jul 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, DCC, Education (local)

Almost 300 staff made redundant in Devon schools due to cuts

“Nearly 300 staff at schools across Devon have been forced to take voluntary redundancy as a result of budget cuts at school, it has been confirmed. Schools all across Devon are on average funded £268 per pupil below the England average, which has resulted in a £24 million shortfall.

Figures released by Devon County Council show that while 212 schools in the county could benefit as a result or the new fair funding formula, another 129 would be even worse off than they are now. They include 24 secondaries, 103 primaries and two all-through schools. …

Matthew Shanks, Director of Learning at Education South West, which inclues Dartmouth Academy, Coombeshead Academy, Kingsbridge Community College, Teign School and primary schools at Christow, Blackawton, East Allington, Kingswear, Rydon and Stoke Fleming, said: “I don’t think there is a single school across Devon who hasn’t been affected by this.”

He added that the cuts in education budget have meant that 86 teaching assistants, 35 senior teaching leaders, 19 caretaking staff, 25 administrators, 55 teachers, and 52 curriculum support staff across 27 secondary schools in Devon will leave their jobs at the end of the summer term and won’t be replaced. …”

http://www.devonlive.com/education-funding-cuts-means-nearly-300-staff-have-to-take-voluntary-redundancies/story-30420745-detail/story.html

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30 Jun 2017

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Claire Wright, Education (local), Inequality

Education cuts bite in Sidmouth: students at Sidmouth College to share books or parents to spend at least £57 to buy them

No whining those who voted Conservative – this is what you voted for and what Swire and Parish vote for in Parliament. Once again, poorer students will lose out if their parents cannot afford the expensive books.

“The principal of Sidmouth College has addressed concerns that the school cannot afford enough textbooks in some subjects by vowing pupils’ education will not be compromised.

James Ingham-Hill says history and geography have been affected following changes to its GCSE and A-level syllabuses.

He said that a class set of geography books costing £650 will have to be shared between the GCSE groups and that the Sidmouth College Association had helped with funding.

The school has also purchased A-level books and offered students opportunities to buy their own to later sell back to the school at a second-hand price.

Mr Ingham-Hill told the Herald: “It has indeed been a challenge to fund the new textbooks required for new GCSE and A-level specifications. This year, it has been a particular issue for geography and history, but all subjects will be affected as the rollout of new exams is completed. The cost of these textbooks is yet another pressure on our budget during a period of real terms reductions in funding.”

Parent Janice Papworth has spent £57 on three textbooks for her son to reduce the number of pupils sharing resources in class.

The Colaton Raleigh resident has written to MP Sir Hugo Swire and called on the community to support the school.

The mum-of-two said: “This is not a criticism of the school. The teachers are doing a fantastic job to provide the best teaching they can under these difficult circumstances. I cannot imagine what extra work they must have put in to manage without the necessary books.

“I am fortunate that I am able to do this and I guess this is not the case for all pupils. Many parents may be unaware that their children are being taught without enough textbooks to go around and, in some subjects, no textbooks at all. Surely state education should be the same for all pupils? I feel very sad that it has come to this, but I cannot see any way around it other than to fund the books ourselves.

“On the whole, Sidmouth College pupils are pleasant and polite. They even give up time for local charities and fundraise for others in the community. If the Government has let them down, then maybe the Sidmouth community can support them – after all, they are the future of the town and surrounding areas.”

Mr Ingham-Hill wrote to parents this week, saying individual student textbooks are not a requirement to complete any GCSE course.

He said in the letter: “At Sidmouth College, despite well-documented issues regarding reduced funding, we have always ensured that department capitation enables subject areas to purchase the materials required to deliver excellent lessons and enable students to achieve the best outcomes.”

He added the school provided a bursary scheme for students from low-income families and a donation fund to support the college in ‘difficult times’.

Devon county councillors Stuart Hughes and Claire Wright said this week they will continue to fight for fairer funding.

Cllr Hughes, who represents Sidmouth, said: “One of our key pledges during the recent county council elections was to continue our fight for fair funding for Devon’s schools. Every child in Devon is worth £290 less than the national average and that’s not right.”

Cllr Wright, who represents the Otter Vale division, said the Government has let Devon’s schools down ‘very badly’.

She added: “The idea that local schools cannot even afford to buy GCSE textbooks is shocking and unbelievable in the fifth largest economy in the world and it is seriously compromising the education of our children.

“Not only should this damaging new funding formula be scrapped, but our local schools should be properly compensated for their costs and properly funded compared with other schools in the country.”

http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/principal-reassures-parents-following-concerns-of-textbook-shortages-at-sidmouth-college-1-5085269

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28 Jun 2017

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Austerity cuts, DCC, Education (local)

“Leicestershire school plans early finish on Fridays due to cuts”

“A school in Leicestershire is proposing to operate on a four-and-a-half-day week due to budget cuts, confirming warnings by unions that changes to the schools funding formula would lead to schools closing early.

In a letter to parents, Danemill primary school in Enderby cited the controversial formula as a reason for its decision to end the school week at lunchtime on Fridays from October.

The letter published by the Leicester Mercury said: “As you may be aware the fairer funding formula has resulted in schools receiving significantly less money in their annual budgets from the government and Danemill is not an exception.”

To cope in the “current economic climate” it proposed early closing on Fridays. It says: “Effective from October 24 2017 the school day would end on Friday afternoons at 1.05pm.” It argued this will help maintain quality teaching and give teachers time to prepare lessons.

Parents have reacted with dismay, according to the Mercury. One unnamed father told the paper: “This is in the middle of the working day. Lots of parents have to work to make ends meet. It is unworkable madness.”

The school has proposed a limited number of “enrichment activities” on Friday afternoons for some children. The proposal follow warnings by teaching unions that schools would be forced to consider early closing because of a squeeze on resources.

Tim Stone, the chief executive of the Discovery Schools Academy Trust which runs Danemill, said the proposal to close early on Fridays was being put out to consultation with parents. …”

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jun/28/leicestershire-school-plans-four-and-a-half-day-teaching-week

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22 Jun 2017

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Accountability, DCC, Education (local), Inequality, Minority Government

“Heads warning of ‘cash starved’ schools”

“Heads are writing to parents warning them of deepening funding problems for schools.

Head teachers in England are keeping up the pressure on school funding, sending a letter warning about “cash-starved” schools to almost two million families.

As the government prepares to set out its plans in the Queen’s Speech, school leaders across 17 councils are calling for urgent action over a funding gap.

Claims over school funding shortages became an election battleground and a doorstep issue with voters.

The Conservative manifesto promised an extra £1bn per year from savings.
But there have been doubts cast on the biggest slice of this extra funding – with uncertainty over whether the government will go ahead with scrapping free meals for all infants.

With no majority in the House of Commons it would be more difficult to get through legislation to scrap the free meals for infants, introduced three years ago.

The plan to remove the meals came under fire from chef and healthy-school-food campaigner, Jamie Oliver.

Cutting staff

The funding warning letter will be sent by head teachers to parents in more than 4,000 schools, saying that many schools are going to have to cut staff and subject choices.

There were warnings before the election of schools having to reduce hours or even go down to a four-day week for some pupils.

School governors backed the concerns over funding, with the first ever “strike” by governors in West Sussex.
The letter will go to parents in the following councils: Brighton, East Sussex, Northamptonshire, Surrey, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Oxfordshire, Thurrock, Cornwall, Hertfordshire, Peterborough, Wokingham, Devon, Norfolk, Suffolk, West Sussex and Dorset.

Parents will be told about analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies which said that the Conservatives’ plans for school spending would mean a “real-terms cut of 2.8% in per-pupil funding between 2016 and 2022″.
The head teachers sending this letter are part of a regionally based campaign over school funding shortages.

Teachers’ unions are also demanding greater investment in schools. …”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-40344057

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19 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Education (local), Inequality

“Government ministers have been heavily criticised after quietly abandoning the requirement for fire sprinklers to be fitted in new schools, in what has been called a “retrograde step” by fire chiefs.

An update to the Department of Education’s (DfE) Design in Fire Safety in Schools stated that “Building Regulations do not require the installation of fire sprinkler suppression systems in school buildings for life safety”.

“Therefore,” it added, “[guidelines] no longer include an expectation that most new school buildings will be fitted with them.”

The move has been lambasted by fire officers and follows two recent major school fires.

More than 75 firefighters were called out to tackle a blaze at Selsey Academy in Sussex on 21 August leaving the structure “effectively a skeleton”, while on 24 August, 12 fire engines tackled a blaze at Cecil Jones Academy in Southend-on-Sea.

Julian Parsons, of the Chief Fire Officers Association, told The Argus: “This is a retrograde step that doesn’t make any sense. Sprinklers don’t just save lives, they prevent fires from spreading and causing significant damage and disruption to our children’s education.”

Brian Robinson, Chairman of the Fire Sector Federations, said the Government “appears to have relegated the principles of property protection to an afterthought”.

He added: “Many of our members see no reason to change the current policy of a risk-based approach for the requirement to install sprinklers in schools and urge the Department to reconsider.”

Responding to the move, Angela Rayner, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, Women and Equalities, said in a Twitter post: “A disgrace, Tory Ministers are to remove requirement to have water sprinklers fitted to new schools, sneaking announcement out on DfE website.”

Installing sprinklers into new schools was a policy introduced in 2007 by Labour Schools Minister Jim Knight.

According to research by the Chief Fire Officers Association there have been 5,132 fires in educational buildings between 2003/04 and 2013/14, resulting in 148 casualties.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Children’s safety is paramount, and we are clear that sprinklers should always be fitted in new school buildings where required by fire safety legislation, and where a fire risk assessment shows that a school is high risk. This policy is absolutely in line with the latest fire safety advice.

“In revising the Fire Safety Design for Schools guidance, consultant fire safety specialists were used and the draft was reviewed and quality assured by the Building Research Establishment. Our consultation on the draft received a good response, including from the Chief Fire Officers’ Association and a number of fire and rescue services, whose comments we will take into account before publication.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-criticised-over-quietly-abandoning-requirement-for-new-schools-to-install-fire-sprinklers-a7219276.html

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18 Jun 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Developers/ Development, Education (local)

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Money versus safety: money always wins out

” …The Observer has learned that successive governments have commissioned and paid for – over the past 12 years – a series of reports into the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of sprinkler systems in the construction of new buildings, including schools and care homes. All have concluded beyond any doubt that they should be used.

Yet last year fire experts were enraged when ministers decided to loosen, not tighten, regulations to allow new schools to be built without sprinkler systems at all. The need to build more schools fast and cheaply appeared to have prevailed. “Everybody bombarded the ministers in education,” says King. “Meetings took place with ministers and they went back to have another look at their guidance and it is still pending today, because they are still trying to hedge their bets.”

It is understood that in March or April this year Barwell [last Housing Minister before the election] agreed in principle to meet the all-parliamentary group for the first time, but the meeting never happened because May called a general election and Barwell, no longer a member of parliament, moved to Downing Street to advise her. …”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/17/tragedy-grenfell-tower-lives-money-fire-safety

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26 May 2017

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Education (local), Hugo Swire

“School spending to fall by 7 per cent if Conservatives win election, Institute for Fiscal Studies says”

From today’s Daily Telegraph – Swire’s wishy-washy letter to the PM seems to have gone ignored. It must have been SO much better for Swire when old-Etonian pals and holiday companions Cameron and Osborne were in charge:

“School spending per pupil looks set to fall by 7 per cent despite a Conservative pledge to increase the education budget if the party wins the general election.

However spending would increase if either Labour or the Liberal Democrats win power, according to the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies.

In a new paper examining each of the main political parties proposals for education spending, the IFS calculated school budgets in England could face a real-terms cut of almost 3 per cent by 2021/22 if the Tories win the election.

This rises to a 7 per cent reduction by 2021/22 once the cuts schools have faced over the past two years are taken into account.

Labour’s plans would leave per pupil spending 6 per cent higher in real terms over the same five year period – 2017/18 to 2021/22.

The IFS – which publishes a wide appraisal of all the manifestos today – the Liberal Democrats’ plans would see per pupil spending protected in real terms at the 2017/18 level. …”

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29 Apr 2017

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Education (local)

“English secondary schools ‘facing perfect storm of pressures’ “

Head teachers are not known for hysteria, so this is serious.

“Secondary schools in England are facing a “perfect storm” of pressures that could have severe consequences for children, headteachers have said.

Budget cuts, changes to exams, problems recruiting teachers and Brexit are causing major upheaval, according to the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT).

The union is also expected to argue against government proposals to expand grammar schools at its annual conference this weekend.

Speaking ahead of the Telford meeting, the NAHT general secretary, Russell Hobby, said: “The combination of challenges facing secondary schools and their students has never been greater.

“Many school leaders are concerned about maintaining high standards in the face of simultaneous upheaval on so many fronts. It’s a perfect storm. The government is loading more uncertainty onto the secondary system than ever before. There is a real risk it will break.”

Hobby repeated warnings that schools are facing “unacceptable levels of financial pressure”, with an NAHT survey showing that 72% of headteachers believe that school budgets will be unsustainable in two years’ time.
u
“This is a result of the government’s choice to freeze spending and keep it at 2010 levels for each pupil. The 2010 cash isn’t going as far as it used to. You can’t expect it to. But the government is flatly refusing to admit the reality.”

Ministers have argued that school funding is at record levels, and that this will increase further as pupil numbers rise. The outgoing NAHT president, Kim Johnson, attacked suggestions that schools need to make efficiency savings.

“It’s quite insulting to have ministers say to you: ‘You need to renegotiate your photocopying contract, perhaps think about the paper you’re getting in, club together with six other schools and you’ll get it cheaper.’”

Schools are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain staff, the NAHT said, particularly in key subjects such as maths, science and languages.

“Year after year, the government has missed its own targets for teacher recruitment,” Hobby said. “Thirty per cent of new teachers leave the profession after five years.

“NAHT’s own research shows school leaders have struggled or failed to recruit in eight out of 10 cases this year. Recruitment has never been more challenging.”

Schools are also dealing with exam changes this summer, including a new GCSE grading system. There are also concerns about a government expectation that 90% of pupils will study English Baccalaureate subjects – English, maths, science, history or geography and a language – narrowing the curriculum, the NAHT said, and uncertainty about how Brexit will affect the thousands of EU nationals who work in schools.

The NAHT’s motion on selective schools says the union should “campaign vigorously to reject the proposed expansion of selection” in the absence of “any compelling evidence that it promotes social mobility”.

Theresa May has said the policy will help to create a place at a good school for every child and argued that many children’s school choices are determined by where they live or their parents’ wealth.”

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/apr/29/english-secondary-schools-facing-perfect-storm-of-pressures?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

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26 Apr 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Education (local)

Schools funding crisis? Buy cheaper photocopiers says Minister

Who put this lunatic in charge of the asylum? Mrs May.

“Labour MPs have criticised a Department for Education letter that suggests schools could make up their budget shortfalls by purchasing cheaper photocopiers or switching energy suppliers.

In a letter to the Labour MP John Cryer who wrote to raise concerns about the funding shortfall for schools in his constituency, the schools minister Nick Gibb said the government recognised schools “are facing increasing cost pressures” and was providing advice to schools about how to save money.

MPs condemn free schools policy as incoherent and wasteful
“Schools could save, on average, up to 10% by making use of our national energy deal and over 40% by using the national deal for printers and photocopiers,” the minister wrote. Other suggestions included following advice on better staff deployment from the Education Endowment Fund and the government’s school buying strategy.

Cryer said the comments showed the department was “living in a fantasy world, utterly divorced from the reality in our schools” and said one school in his constituency was set to lose £960,055 in real terms over the next four years.

Schools in Waltham Forest, part of Cryer’s east London constituency, face real-terms budget cuts of £21m between 2016 and 2020 – based on increased costs of £17m from unfunded new cost pressures such as the government’s apprenticeship levy in addition to around £4.3m from changes to the national funding formula for schools, according to the local authority’s calculation.

“The government is clearly in complete denial about the impact its policies are having on schools,” Cryer said. …

On Wednesday, the public accounts committee accused the DfE of an “incoherent and too often poor value for money” free schools programme while the existing school estate – much of which is more than 40 years old – is falling into disrepair. The report found that an estimated £7bn was needed to restore it to a satisfactory condition.

During its inquiry, the committee heard evidence from headteachers about the state of their buildings, with one describing how on windy days, dust from asbestos ceiling tiles would fall and students had to go to an emergency van to be decontaminated. The school has since moved into a new building.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/26/cash-strapped-schools-could-switch-energy-suppliers-minister-nick-gibb

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22 Apr 2017

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Austerity cuts, Education (local)

Lympstone primary school amalgamates classes due toeducation cuts

“An East Devon primary school has taken a drastic and controversial decision to teach children from different year groups together due to funding cuts.

Lympstone Church of England Primary School has told parents details about new class structures which it will introduce this September at a meeting on Wednesday afternoon. Parents have been told that despite attempts to bring fairer funding to Devon’s schools, Lympstone will be losing around £62,000 due to national cuts to education funding.

While other schools in similar situations have announced staff redundancies, mostly among admin and teaching assistant posts, Lympstone primary is opting to no longer teach children in set age group classes from reception to Year 6.

The decision has sparked much anger among parents who believe their children’s education and happiness will suffer. It is believed some are even threatening to pull their children out of the school if the changes go ahead. …

The school currently has around 188 pupils who are taught in seven classes. Its budget has lost close to £30,000 this financial year, but with inflation and rising costs, the hit to the school is closer to double that, parents have been informed.

It has resulted in a decision to amalgamate year groups into six classes from seven to prevent a deficit which it is not allowed to have. The school previously went from having six mixed year group classes to seven in 2011. …

http://www.devonlive.com/devon-primary-school-merges-year-groups-to-save-money/story-30283949-detail/story.html

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21 Apr 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Education (local), NHS (local)

“Exclusive: £8,000 for a blind, £2,000 for a tap; the true cost of PFI”

Owl says: although this is about schools, it applies to the NHS too. Why is Tiverton hospital staying open when others are closing – it is a PFI- funded hospital and closing it or even reducing beds, even if that is a right decision, is not an option.

“Schools are paying thousands of pounds more than they should for everyday items because they are locked into PFI contracts they have no control over, a Tes investigation has revealed.

In what are dubbed “life-cycle costs”, schools are charged over the duration of PFI contracts, which results in even modest monthly payments mounting up over the years.

One teacher, who asks not to be named, cites an example: “We are a PFI school with an annual PFI bill of £132,478. We have been paying £88 [a year] for the installation of a new sink for 14 years now. With nine years left on the PFI contact, that sink will cost £2,024.”

At Bristol Metropolitan Academy, a single blind for a room will end up costing £8,154 under PFI. Oasis Academy Brislington, also in the Bristol area, will pay £2,211 for an external water tap over the course of a contract.

Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow, in north-east London, told Tes that the companies that profit from financing PFI deals were the “legal loan sharks of the public sector”. She wants an inquiry into PFI “before even more schools and hospitals are saddled with debts they can’t pay”.

For some schools, even getting the gates open to allow children to use the toilet before a school trip is a costly exercise.

One secondary in Oldham – Newman RC College – was charged £48 after security opened the school to allow pupils to visit the lavatory. The same school had to pay more than £400 for caretakers to fit some notice boards.

Such charges are not unusual. Tim Gilson, the head at Malmesbury School, in Wiltshire, said: “We had some benching put in the canteen, just along one wall, about 20 yards. We have to pay about £40 a month for the facilities management cost of that bench, on top of the cost of putting that bench in and all the materials. It’s a monthly charge that continues for the length of the contract.”

With 13 years left on his school’s PFI contract, the secondary will be charged £6,240 just for the management of the bench.” …

https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/exclusive-ps8k-a-blind-ps2k-a-tap-true-cost-pfi

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21 Apr 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Education (local), General Election, Health and Social Care (local), NHS (local)

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“Public services pressures the next government can’t ignore”

Emily Andrews, Institute of Government writes:

“As the general election campaign gets going, politicians must not duck the issue of serious pressures in the public sector

It is no secret that the Conservative government has struggled to implement the promises of their last manifesto, particularly those around spending controls. As our Performance Tracker report shows, the short-term belt-tightening measures which produced efficiencies in the early part of the last Parliament – staff cuts and wage control – are no longer working.

In the last six months, the government has twice been forced into emergency action to stabilise services at or on the brink of failure: with emergency cash injections announced for 2,500 new prison officers at the end of 2016, and £2bn for social care at the March Budget.

The biggest pressures

The data makes it clear where the biggest pressures facing the incoming government lie.

The last time the UK went to the polls (in a general election at least) 91% of people were seen at A&E within four hours. This is shy of the government’s 95% target, which had not been hit since the end of 2012. Since then, despite record overspends and a cash injection at the last spending review, the number of people being seen within this targeted time has continued to fall, down to 81% at the end of last year.

Despite growing numbers of older people, and working-age adults with long-term conditions, adult social care received a 6% spending cut between 2009/10 and 2015/16. This includes a funding boost from the Better Care Fund last year.

Yet delayed transfers of care – where people who are deemed medically fit for discharge remain in a hospital bed – have continued to rise. The number of days delayed due to issues in social care has risen 51% since August 2015.

The extra £2bn provided to the adult social care in the March budget may help tackle this immediate problem, but the prime minister herself has admitted that the government does not currently have a long-term solution to put the struggling sector on a sustainable footing.

Schools have continued to be comparatively well-funded but deeper problems are starting to appear. Last year, the government’s target for teachers entering training was missed by 15%. Meanwhile the number of teachers leaving state secondary schools has outstripped the number entering them, at a time when the number of secondary school pupils is set to rise. Schools will have to tackle these problems at the same time as a 6.5% reduction in per pupil funding (up to 2019/20).

It is no secret that the Conservative government has struggled to implement the promises of their last manifesto, particularly those around spending controls. As our Performance Tracker report shows, the short-term belt-tightening measures which produced efficiencies in the early part of the last Parliament – staff cuts and wage control – are no longer working.

In the last six months, the government has twice been forced into emergency action to stabilise services at or on the brink of failure: with emergency cash injections announced for 2,500 new prison officers at the end of 2016, and £2bn for social care at the March Budget.

Waiting times IfG

Despite growing numbers of older people, and working-age adults with long-term conditions, adult social care received a 6% spending cut between 2009/10 and 2015/16. This includes a funding boost from the Better Care Fund last year.

Yet delayed transfers of care – where people who are deemed medically fit for discharge remain in a hospital bed – have continued to rise. The number of days delayed due to issues in social care has risen 51% since August 2015.

The extra £2bn provided to the adult social care in the March budget may help tackle this immediate problem, but the prime minister herself has admitted that the government does not currently have a long-term solution to put the struggling sector on a sustainable footing.

Facing up to the issues

So what are the options facing the current crop of ministers and aspiring ministers, as their election campaigns kick into gear?

Vague promises of efficiency and reform will not cut it this time round after another two years of intensifying pressures in public services.

Vote-winning cash injection promises – softening the blow of the new schools’ funding formula perhaps – may look appealing. But failure to match the cash to genuine solutions could end up wasting money which the next government, whatever their colour, will not be able to spare. And we know the ‘crisis, cash, repeat’ pattern of the last two years is unsustainable – financially and politically.

To square these circles – of demographic ageing, issues with the schools workforce, and a hefty Brexit implementation bill – the next government will have to make difficult decisions.

All politicians owe it to the electorate to make it clear what those are. It will be pretty obvious whether this is happening. It will mean, for example, putting some specifics behind promises of ‘long-term strategy’ for social care – for example, do the parties intend to implement the recommendations of the Dilnot Commission, and if so how do they intend to pay for it?

Even better, parties should commit to submitting their spending plans to independent scrutiny through an ‘OBR for public spending’, to assess their realism. In a ‘post-truth’ age, it is vital that the public can trust that politicians’ claims about what they can achieve are reliable.

Politicians should use this election to gain a political mandate for specific, challenging reforms to tackle these pressures – or risk failing services and intensifying public mistrust.

http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/opinion/2017/04/public-services-pressures-next-government-cant-ignore

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20 Apr 2017

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Accountability, Austerity cuts, Education (local), General Election, Post-Brexit Adjustments, Voting

Can we afford to starve education of funding?

“BRITAIN is facing a chronic skills shortage as the country’s teens languish among the worst in the western World at reading and maths.

A devastating new report last night claimed England and Northern Ireland together are rated in the bottom four “of the international class” for literacy and numeracy.

And they’re the UK’s 16 to 24 year-olds are dead last in an OECD classification of 19 countries for computer problem-solving skills.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) slammed ministers past and present for “two decades” of failing the nation’s youth.

And it urged the Government to use a further £2 billion from the Apprenticeship Levy to pay for more skills training.

Lizzie Crowley, CIPD skills adviser, said the country was “sleepwalking into a low-value, low-skills economy”.

She said: “Our report should serve as a real wake-up call for the Government to break with the past past two decades of failed skills policy and set the UK on a new course that delivers the right results for individuals, organisations and the economy as a whole.”

She added: “We can either take the high road as a nation or we can keep doing what we’ve always done and get the same mediocre results.”

The CIPD said it was the first time the OECD had arranged the statistics in this way.”

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3359236/britains-teens-among-the-worst-in-the-world-at-reading-maths-and-even-computer-skills/

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6 Apr 2017

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Austerity cuts, DCC, Education (local)

1,060 of the extra 63,000 school places needed in England are in Devon

“Devon needs to add an extra 2,320 school places by September 2018 to meet demand – on top of numbers already planned – according to new figures.

The county is set to see primary pupil numbers rise by 17 per cent between May 2010 and September 2018, up from 49,808 in 2010 to a projected 58,278 in 2018.

Between 2010 and 2016, an extra 6,520 places were created in schools in the area, and a further 2,713 are planned but an estimated 1,260 are still needed by the 2018/19 school year to meet demand, according to Department for Education figures.

Secondary school pupil numbers are expected to rise by one per cent from 37,748 in May 2010 to 38,200 in September 2018.

Within Devon an extra 4,181 places were created between 2010 and 2016 to help meet demand, with another 145 planned, but 1,060 are still needed by the 2018/19 school year.

England is set to see primary pupil numbers rise by seven per cent between May 2010 and September 2018, up from 3.8m in 2010 to a projected 4.6m in 2018.”

http://www.devonlive.com/figures-reveal-squeeze-on-school-places-across-devon/story-30252477-detail/story.html