1:48pm Monday 22nd February 2010
By Oliver Evans
EDUCATION chiefs have been slammed for cutting cash to help Buckinghamshire’s ‘most needy’ pupils.
Conservatives last week agreed to slash £126,000 from its school improvement service by cutting hired-in expert help for struggling youngsters.
Opposition Liberal Democrats said the move would damage efforts to close the gap between grammar and upper schools.
Buckinghamshire County Council member Councillor Niknam Hussain warned some children are facing a ‘dead end’.
He said: “Every year we have a desperate cut in school improvement.
“How will we achieve this improvement to narrow the gap?”
Lib Dem group leader Councillor Mary Baldwin asked chiefs: “Is the council serious about raising attainment of the most deprived and vulnerable children?”
She said: “There is a serious risk of a lack of support going into the most needy schools.”
Cllr Marion Clayton, responsible for schools, said: “I know as well as you do, Mrs Baldwin, that education is one of our priorities, unlike this Government which came into power saying education, education, education.
“We do that rather than talking about it.”
The gap is narrowing for key GCSE results between top performing grammars and upper schools, latest figures show (see link, bottom of story).
Overall GCSE results rank the county fifth highest out of 161 council areas.
Yet funds were having to be diverted to protecting looked after children in light of the Baby P scandal, Cllr Clayton said, hitting the improvement budget.
Cllr Clayton told Thursday’s meeting of the council: “Through no fault of our own [there is] a need to reduce some of the investment in school improvement.
“Because of that, our focus is even more on those children who are not as achieving as well as they should.”
And she said she ‘took exception’ to Cllr Baldwin’s claims there was a ‘lack of foresight’ over building improvements to ‘ageing’ schools.
Primaries had got investment and Bucks is ‘way down the list’ for Government cash for secondaries, she said.
Only Cressex Community School – being rebuilt for a September opening – has got funding from the national ‘Building Schools for the Future’ scheme.
The authority is bidding for £85m for five secondaries. Schools in the south of the county include a bid for £13.9m for Chesham Park Community College and £11m for Burnham Upper School.
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