Hartlepool chiefs writing to the Government over plight of cash-strapped schools and their pupils

Councillors on Hartlepool Borough Council Children’s Services Committee agreed to write to Government ministers over a lack of funding to support schools in the town.

Cllr Sue Little said: “It’s important that we back our schools and show we’re struggling as a local authority.”

It came as councillors agreed to submit an application, called a disapplication request, to the Secretary of State to set the Education Services General Duties rate at £60 per pupil/place for 2021/22.

The application is being submitted for the fifth consecutive year, and comes as Hartlepool’s Schools’ Forum considered this proposal and did not agree to transfer the funding to the local authority.

Schools were clear this was not because of concerns about the quality of services provided by the local authority.

However they consider funding statutory duties from school budgets a budget cut, and funding should be provided by the Government.

Regulations state if an agreement cannot be reached with maintained schools the matter would need referring to the Secretary of State for a decision, and this has happened for the past four years in Hartlepool, with the request approved each year.

Cllr Brenda Harrison noted the council has written to the Government before over the issue, and raised a motion to continue doing so to push the matter.

She said: “We have written as a committee to the Secretary of State before about this issue and I would suggest that we keep doing that as a committee to highlight the issues again and see.

“Although there may not be anything there now, I think if we just ignore it they’ll think we’re alright, so we just need to keep highlighting the fact that we’re not alright at all.

“I don’t see any issue about actually writing to say the local authority needs extra funding as well for schools, and to support the schools.”

Council officers added the Schools’ Forum write to the Secretary of State every year about this issue and ask about the funding.

Mark Tilling, headteacher at High Tunstall College of Science, who sits on the committee, said the issue was about cuts to schools and the local authority, adding the Government should be providing the funding.

He said: “The forum was very clear, this isn’t about us saying we’re not getting a quality of service, this is about a cut to schools, but also if we don’t fund it, then it’s a cut to the authority.

“These services have to be supported and have to be funded and should be funded as it had always been in the past, and not be a cut to either party.”

New national funding arrangements introduced in 2017/18 shifted responsibility for funding statutory duties from a specific grant to the Dedicated Schools Grant.

The government provided no additional funding to schools to cover this cost shift, according to council officers.

Cllr Leisa Smith said: “It’s a dance that we’ve been doing every year. Schools deserve the money, but the council also needs the money to be able to keep going.”

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