SIR – There is a fundamental unfairness at the heart of the moves to massively cut the money councils get for school improvement and support. It’s not a level playing field as individual academy ESG allocations will be protected from losses.
Therefore, the full extent of the reductions being faced by councils in one foul swoop go in 2015/16 will only be felt incrementally by the protected academies sector over a long time and it will take some years for the full impact to be felt.
This at a time when councils are having to tackle the support needs of all sorts of schools way beyond those who they are in theory funded to support and have to be held to account for the outcomes in all schools, not just those they fund.
As the demands for school support and challenge grow and more schools of all forms of governance need support to improve, the idea that tearing apart the funding for school support is a clever idea is risible. Surely, it is time to end this fragmentation.
Councillor Ralph Berry, City Hall
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