Stephen with the NEU delivering the letter to the education secretary
Stephen with the NEU delivering the letter to the education secretary

Local leaders from across councils and the country have today joined forces with the National Education Union (NEU) to urge Education Secretary Damian Hinds to end the school funding crisis

 

Stephen Morgan MP and locally-elected council members from across the country have backed the campaign by the NEU’s Councillors Network, which is supported by education fair funding campaign group f40, in expressing concern about the desperate state of school funding in England and Wales.

 

They are urging Government to invest more money in schools and colleges in the Spending Review this year to help meet the huge funding crisis across education, which is resulting in growing budget deficits, cuts in teaching staff, a reduction in some subject areas, and a poorer education for children.

 

The Institute for Fiscal Studies states that schools have suffered a cut of 8 per cent per pupil since 2010. The Education Policy Institute has said almost a third of all council-run secondary schools are now in deficit and, according to last year’s Kreston UK report, eight in ten academies are in deficit.

 

Campaign group f40, which started more than 20 years ago with the aim of influencing significant change in the way government allocated funding to local authorities and schools, threw its weight behind the NEU’s efforts to lobby Damian Hinds, and follows Stephen Morgan MP’s long running ‘Portsmouth Against School Cuts’ campaign.

 

Stephen Morgan MP said:

 

“This situation cannot go on. Schools and colleges in Portsmouth desperately need additional funding to ensure our children and young people get the education they deserve.

 

I’ve visited Portsmouth schools and colleges. I’ve met with city headteachers. I’ve surveyed schools. I’ve listened to concerns by parents and governors. I’ve brought local education reps to Parliament to tell the Minister exactly how funding cuts are affecting our city. Its high time the Secretary of State did his job by listening to us, and importantly, now acts for us.

 

There needs to be a reversal of cuts to school budgets since 2010, and for the funding of schools and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision to be of a level that ensures all children and young people in Portsmouth get the education they deserve, regardless of where they live.”

 

A survey undertaken across schools in the Portsmouth South constituency by Stephen Morgan MP has identified that not a single respondent indicated they were ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with their schools current funding situation and 100% of schools involved in the survey expressed that they had had to make cuts since 2015.

 

The MP has vowed to carry on his campaign for better funding for city schools.

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