BARNET SIXTH-FORMERS PAYING THE PRICE FOR LABOUR FUNDING BLUNDER

MP for Chipping Barnet, Theresa Villiers, has expressed her anger and concern about a Government blunder which has meant Barnet’s schools are to lose £1 million of the funding they had been promised.

In January of this year, the Learning and Skills Council, administered by Labour MP Ed Balls, wrote to a number of schools in Barnet informing them of their provisional 6^th Form funding allocations for 2009/2010 academic year. At the end of February the LSC provided each school with their revised allocations marked as ‘final’, but when they wrote to schools again with a second letter, also marked as ‘final’ just days before the Easter Break, schools found that the figures were dramatically lower than those previously stated.

An accompanying letter from the LSC explained that the demand for Post-16 places was higher than previously forecast and whilst there was a national increase in funding for 6^th Form education, this was insufficient to fund the actual increase – up to 18,000 pupils more than expected.

Theresa Villiers MP said, “Barnet schools and Barnet sixth-formers are being made to pay the price for yet another foul-up from this incompetent Labour Government.”

“Our local schools are being penalised for the Government’s incompetence and for their success in encouraging more and more pupils to continue with their education. In effect, they are being punished for their successful efforts to implement the Government objective of increasing post-16 participation.”