Huppert Welcomes Extra £12.5M For County’s Schools

Cllr Peter Downes

An extra £12.5 million of government funding for Cambridgeshire schools has been welcomed by Cambridge MP Julian Huppert.

The money is designed to relieve the pressure on school places and comes after Julian joined MPs from across the county to campaign for extra funding, raising the issue in the House of Commons.

He received a promise from Education Minister, Michael Gove to review the county’s grant funding and the latest investment is part of an additional £600 million for schools across England this year. It comes on top of the £800 million already announced for 2012-13 to address the shortage in pupil places.

Julian said “This extra money is good news and will so some way to addressing the massive shortfall in funding for schools across Cambridge and the county as a whole.

“I am pleased that we are putting money into schools; they have been neglected by previous governments for far too long. Educating our children must be one of our top priorities but we cannot give them the schooling they need and deserve without investment.

“Our schools have been near the bottom of the pile compared to other local authorities across the country and while this payment helps with school buildings, we are still millions of pounds short of the national average for what we can spend on our pupils. There is no room for complacency here.”

Liberal Democrat Peter Downes, Cambridgeshire County Council's Shadow Cabinet Member for Education said: "I am pleased that Cambridgeshire's plight is finally being recognised by the government.

“There is a growing demand for school places across the country and this county in particular, but until now there has never been the money to address this problem. Finally we have a government which is taking this issue seriously and I hope the coalition will continue to build on this and give Cambridgeshire schools the money they need.”

Lib Dems Welcome Decison To Freeze County Councillors' Pay

Cambridgeshire County Council

Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats have welcomed the decision to freeze county councillors’ allowances for the coming year.

They claim the move was justified when taking into account Cambridgeshire County Council’s budget and electorate size with similar councils across the country, something the first panel paid to do.

“When you take budget and electorate size into account, we are not badly remunerated at all,” said Councillor Peter Downes who presented this numeric evidence to the second Independent Review Panel set up to discuss members’ allowances.

The evidence showed that if the Conservative-run county council had agreed a 25 per cent pay rise, as suggested by a first IRP and backed by the Tories, councillors would have been the second highest paid among 14 comparable councils but with the 12th lowest workload.

The IRP said in its report: "The use of different 'norm groups' within benchmarking allows very different conclusions to be drawn.  This became apparent, for example, when the panel looked at the level of allowances paid by other county authorities and then factored in budget and electorate size to the raw data."

“This proves that the evidence base of the first review was flawed,” said Cllr Downes. “By using different ‘norm’ groups it had drawn a very different conclusion - a flawed conclusion."

Lib Dem Leader, Kilian Bourke said: “We have consistently called for a freeze in councillor councillors’ allowances and finally common sense has prevailed. We could not justify taking a pay rise when front line services are being cut and people are losing their jobs.

“The evidence Councillor Downes presented to the panel comprehensively undermined the evidence base used by the first panel and proved that a freeze was the right outcome, as we are already paid in line with other similar councils across the country.

“In backing a 25 per cent increase in allowances, the Conservatives made a bad error of judgement.”

Children With Special Needs Miss Out As Academies Cash In

Schools converting to academies in Cambridgeshire have been cashing in at the expense of pupils who need extra help because of their special needs.

The Children and Young People's Scrutiny panel has been told that services will be reduced for disabled children, for young people in care and for those with special needs.

An officer report said that “services will be spread more thinly” and “lower levels of need will not  receive support”. There will also be a reduction in specialist teachers who support primary age children with special needs and a cut in family support packages.

These cuts are necessary because the government is making a general reduction in funding to local authorities but also because the county's budget has been top-sliced by £3.1 million pounds to give extra funding to the new academies.

“This is desperately unfair,” said Lib Dem Education spokesman, Peter Downes. “Surely it is wrong to be moving funding away from those who need it most in order to give extra funding to those who need it least. The way the extra money has been allocated to academies has given them far more than they need to replace the services they are no longer getting from the council.”

At the Scrutiny Panel, Cllr Downes challenged Cllr Harty, Cabinet Member for Education, to approach the academies to give back some of their extra cash to reduce the service cuts.

“'If we are 'all in this together', now is the time for some altruism from the academies,” said Cllr Downes.

Notes for editor:

There are currently 32 academies in Cambridgeshire. Since they became academies, they will have received by March 2013, on top of their normal funding, an extra £13.8 million pounds to enable them to buy in the services they no longer get from Cambridgeshire County Council. Most estimates are that this about three times more than they need.

Lib Dems Pledge To Maintain School Buildings And Improve Energy Efficiency

In their alternative Cambridgeshire County Council budget, the Lib Dems have set aside £10 million over the next five years to maintain and improve the buildings of the 200 schools for which the council is still responsible.

“The council has a school maintenance backlog of over £20 million”, said Lib Dem Education Spokesman, Peter Downes. “We would increase the investment in making schools fit for purpose and we would give priority to maintenance work that would improve energy efficiency.

“This is a win-win situation. The school would reduce its expenditure on energy, thus releasing more funds for teaching, and the county would have to pay less in carbon tax.'

Central government has cut back drastically on the funding it makes available directly to school for capital improvements in order to fund its other schemes, such as the creation of 'free schools'.

“The government has got its priorities wrong and we must do what we can at a local level to redress the balance,” said Kilian Bourke, Lib Dem Group Leader.

Lib Dems Bid To Solve Poor Exam Record For Disadvantaged Pupils

Cambridgeshire has one of the lowest records in the country for helping pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds achieve their full potential.

The county comes 12th from the bottom in league tables for achieving five A* to C grades in GCSEs including English and Maths; only 25 per cent of the pupils on free school meals achieve these targets.

In a bid to close the national performance gap, Liberal Democrat Children's Minister has allocated an extra £600 per Free School Meals child, the Pupil Premium.

With this money schools will be able to support children from disadvantaged backgrounds by providing extra one-to-one tuition, more teaching assistants or after-school activities.

This year, the amount available nationally for the Pupil Premium will be doubled to £1.25bn and this will increase to £2.5bn by 2014-15.

Peter Downes, Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson and former secondary school headteacher, said: “The gap between those who do really well and those who don’t is too great. Unfortunately, how wealthy your parents are has been a deciding factor in a child’s chances for too long.”

Cllr Downes, who represents Brampton and Kimbolton on Cambridgeshire County Council added: “As a Liberal Democrat, I believe we cannot let this continue and that is why we must help children reach their full potential. In the Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats’ budget amendment we propose to enhance the Pupil Premium by £250 per pupil in the eight most deprived schools in the county.”

Liberal Democrat Children’s Minister, Sarah Teather said: “These figures reveal that children from deprived backgrounds have been let down by previous governments. All too often, children from disadvantaged backgrounds do not get the same opportunities as their more well-off peers, leaving their talents wasted.

“As a Liberal Democrat, I believe we have a duty to ensure we turn this shocking legacy of the last Labour Government around. That is why the Coalition Government is doing the right thing by giving schools extra money to focus on supporting these pupils.”

Tories Block Liberal Democrat Move To Freeze Allowances

Lib Dem attempts to freeze councillors' allowances for the next 18 months have been blocked by Conservative Councillors.

A proposal put to a meeting of Cambridgeshire County Council by Lib Dem Peter Downes called for there to be no rises before April 2013 at the earliest.

But Conservative Councillors, who controversially voted themselves a 25 per cent pay rise last month, voted the Lib Dem proposal down

“We need to reassure the public that councillors won’t vote themselves a pay rise at a time when services are being cut and staff are being made redundant,” said Cllr Downes.

Lib Dem Leader Kilian Bourke said: "The Conservatives made a mistake in voting the increase through and it is a relief that it was scrapped, but another review will have to take place soon.  We wanted to commit in advance to not accepting any increase until 2013 at the earliest.

"Councillors should not be giving themselves pay rises at a time of wage freezes and redundancies."

A report about raising allowances will be coming to a council meeting in early 2012.

Huppert’s Victory As Government Gives Extra £10m For Schools

MP Julian Huppert is celebrating victory after today’s (Thursday, November 3) announcement by the government that it will be giving Cambridgeshire schools an extra £10.2 million.

Julian had been pushing for more money for the county’s schools which are among the lowest funded in the country.

He joined MPs from across the county to campaign for extra funding and raised the issue in the House of Commons.

In February, Education Minister, Michael Gove promised Julian a review the county’s grant allocation – and today he announced the county would be among 100 benefiting from an extra £500 million to provide more school places.

Julian said: “This is good news for Cambridge and Cambridgeshire as a whole.

“It goes some way to addressing the major shortfall in funding which puts the county’s schools near the bottom of the pile compared to other local authorities across the country. Even with this payment, however, the county is still £25 million short of the national average and we cannot afford to be complacent.  

“But in allocating this money, the Minister has recognised that our region is experiencing rapid growth and that we are facing a severe shortage of school places in the city and across the county. It’s a start in giving our children the education they so rightly deserve.

“The fight is far from over, however, and I will continue until Cambridgeshire is put on a par with the rest of the country and receives the money from government to which it is entitled.”

Liberal Democrat Peter Downes, Cambridgeshire County Council’s Shadow Cabinet Member for Education said: “I am pleased that Cambridgeshire’s plight has been recognised by the government and it has been chosen to receive this extra money.

“Our schools have suffered from years of under-funding by successive governments and finally steps are being taken to address that.

“I hope that the coalition will build on this and allocate Cambridgeshire schools the money they need to meet the growing demand for places across the county.”

Council May Face Massive Cash Cuts To Fund Academies

Cambridgeshire County Council may soon find itself forced to make cuts in this year’s budget to find the extra money needed to fund the schools that have become academies.

The government has realised that it is wildly over budget for its academy programme and is now consulting about how to plug the gap.

In a recent consultation document the government conceded that it is facing a shortfall of over £600 million over the two year period 2011-2013. This has arisen because it is paying academies more money than they need and consequently more schools have decided to become academies than expected.

Lib Dem shadow cabinet member for Education, Cllr Peter Downes said:

“This amounts to a bribe to persuade schools to convert to academies and leave the Local Authority so that Mr Gove can demonstrate the 'success' of his academy policy. This will fragment our education system, which is already under financial pressure.

“Mr Gove's policy, clearly supported by the Tories in Cambridgeshire, is divisive, unfair and unsustainable.”

In Cambridgeshire four primary schools have become academies and two more are expected to convert by October 1st. 17 secondary schools have left the Local Authority already and five more are on the way.

The Council has already lost £1.71 million from this year’s budget and now stands to lose a further £3 to £4 million, depending on exactly when schools convert.

Cllr Fiona Whelan, Lib Dem shadow cabinet member for Adults’ and Children’s Social Care said:

“It is impossible to defend or justify transferring money out of services to the most vulnerable adults and children just so that a few relatively privileged schools can get a cash boost.”

Council officers expect to hear the government’s decision early in September.

Opinion: Academies Overspend Revealed! (By Cllr Peter Downes)

Figures in a Government consultation paper on the funding of academies have revealed that Michael Gove’s policy of getting schools to convert to academies is expected to cost nearly £600 million more than planned over the two year period 2011 – 2013.
 
This confirms what Lib Dem activists have been saying for some time i.e. that the programme for converting schools to academies is costly and unsustainable, as well as being divisive and unfair.
 
When a school decides to leave its Local Authority (LA)  and become ‘independent’ (i.e. dependent on central government!), in addition to its standard funding it gets an extra grant called LACSEG (Local Authority Central Spend Equivalent Grant) to allow it to buy in the services it no longer gets from the LA.
 
Heads and Governors have done the sums and soon realised that the LACSEG gives them far more than they need and so they get a net bonus. In the case of large secondary schools, this might amount to £400,000 or even more.
 
The word spread quickly, hence the ‘dash for cash’ that has dominated the educational scene for the last year. Gove claims that Heads are attracted by freedom and autonomy (released from the shackles of bureaucratic LAs); in practice, Heads are going for the extra money, especially at a time when school funding is tight.
 
The LACSEG is partially recouped from the money that the LA spends on pupils with acute needs. This in effect transfers funds from those in greatest need to those with fewest problems. The rest of the money is top-sliced from the general grant to councils, whether or not they have any schools converting to academies! This crude method has incensed local councillors by its unfairness.
 
Figures published on July 19th show that the expected LACSEG spend on academies in existence and schools likely to convert within the next year will amount to £997 million (mid-range estimates).  The clawback from Local Authorities already announced and partially implemented is £148m for 11-12 and £265m for 12-13, making £413m in total.
 
This leaves a gap of £584 million. This is tantamount to a bribe to tempt schools to convert to academies in order to justify Gove’s flagship policy.
 
The consultation on what to do started on July 19th and ends on August 16th.
 
The country surely cannot afford a wasteful and unnecessary policy of this kind. Liberal Democrats in Parliament and in the Local Government Association must speak out about this. Liberal Democrats on school governing bodies are urged to dissuade their schools from converting to academy status.
 
In two years time there will be a new national funding formula for all schools which, we are told, will treat all schools fairly. That is something all Liberal Democrats ought to be fighting for.
 
Peter Downes is a former President and Funding Consultant of the Secondary Heads Association (now the Association of School and College Leaders), a Cambridgeshire County Councillor and Vice-President of the Liberal Democrat Education Association. He successfully proposed a motion opposing Academies and Free Schools at the Liberal Democrat conference in Liverpool last September.