EDUCATION CUTS ‘WILL HIT POOR’
MP’s anger as City Hall prepares to decide what school services will go
Published: 18 June 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM
CHILDREN’S chiefs are agonising over where the axe should fall after the budget for education in Westminster was slashed by £1.5million.
MP Karen Buck, teachers unions and children’s campaigners have warned sweeping cuts will cripple front-line services and leave a scar on the education landscape for generations, despite government promises to make only non-essential back office savings on “waste”.
The cuts are part of a £1.1billion reduction in area-based grants announced by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles last week.
In Westminster the money pays for special needs facilities, teachers’ pay, teenage pregnancy support and substance misuse schemes for teens, among other services. Quintin Kynaston School in St John’s Wood will also have £50,000 shaved off its budget.
Ms Buck, MP for Westminster North, has painted a grim picture of what’s to come for Westminster’s 17,000 school-aged children, anticipating that it will be the most vulnerable who will suffer the most.
“It’s not for me to say where the council should spend what money they have, but there is a serious danger of being very retrograde,” she said.
“It is staggering that they spend so much money on their communications department at this time.
“If they do cut extra schools services, we will see less opportunities and probably more crime. I am angry with the government because we were told it would be directed at waste, and now we are seeing savage cuts to frontline services.”
June O’Sullivan, chief executive of Westminster Children’s Society, called for “sensible” decision-making to spare future agony.
She added: “The council need to protect the most disadvantaged, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.
“It’s misleading rubbish to say we can make cuts without getting rid of important jobs. I’ve already had a war cabinet meeting. A lot of good work is going to be undone, and I think there should be proper consultation with residents about the cuts.”
Geoff Bates, secretary of Westminster NUT, added to the gloom, insisting headteachers would have little choice but to make teacher redundancies because of the Building Schools for the Future fund being ring-fenced.
In a bid to assuage fears, the Department for Education stressed that core funding for schools, colleges and children’s centres was protected. City Hall’s head of schools, Councillor Nickie Aiken, has launched a department-wide review to identify where cuts can be made with minimum impact.
She said: “As funding gets tighter we have to channel the money we have to the services that make the most difference, and ensure our most vulnerable children and young people are protected.
“We are currently reviewing all the areas that have been affected as changes will need to be made over the next year to adapt to this reduction in funding.”