Brent Council and the CSR: Education

I promised a series of posts on the CSR and Brent, and here is one on education.

Under the CSR we lose the Education Maintenance Allowance, which gives support to young people from poor families to help them stay in education. This will be cut. I gather there are about 4,000 Brent youngsters who will lose up to £1,100 a year. Despite Sarah Teather's promises, SureStart funding will be frozen for four years, i.e. a real terms cut.

Schools will see a 0.1% rise in funding each year, according to the government. The effect of Ms Teather's vaunted pupil premium is as yet unclear, but it is likely to lead to some kind of redistribution within the sector. It may also disguise some real cuts. For instance, the headteacher of Alperton Community School is quoted in the Willesden Times saying that she will be required to divert part of her "pupil premium" to create a "hardship fund" to replace the Education Maintenance Allowance, so even the 0.1% figure may not be a real rise.

Readers of previous entries will know that I have been particularly worried by the replacement to Building Schools for the Future which Teather & co. abolished earlier this year. Ms Teather promised that we could apply for a new Building Fund to replacethe money we had been awarded, but which she decided to take away from us. The CSR cuts education capital spend by 60%, so it looks as if any new fund won't have sufficent funding to replace the old one.

Non school funding is also being cut (by about 12%). This likely to affect things like support for disabled pupils, school meals and early years learning.

Finally adult learning gets a 25% cut. THis will probably lead to BACES charging people more for courses and greater diffculty in adults retraining for work e.g. help with English skills.

I do not recall Ms Teather setting out this agenda during the election campaign.