Letter: Schools fail to fund pay award
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From Professor Robert Pritchard
Sir: Leicestershire has been unable to fund the teachers' pay award in full, despite the claims to the contrary by Gillian Shephard, the Secretary of State for Education (report, 21 February). To have done so, and fund the projected increase in pupil numbers, would have required us to increase the schools' budget by about £8.6m (3.7 per cent). We were able to find only 2 per cent more cash - not enough even to meet the pay award. So there will be fewer teachers and larger classes.
It is nonsense to claim that front-line services can be fully protected by cutting out waste. In every one of the eight years I have been a county councillor, the administrative bureaucracy has taken a much more than proportionate share of the slow strangulation that has been imposed upon us. Yet still we have had to cut back at the sharp end as well. This year, for example, there were further cutbacks in youth and community education, and many other activities, in a conscious effort to protect schools.
Because this council has been "hung" for 14 years, every decision and every item of expenditure is scrutinised at length in public. There are no cosy relationships between a ruling party and paid officers. Decisions cannot be taken without open scrutiny, or full access to information, or debate, or any attempt to seek a consensus, and then thrust down everyone's throats.
When Westminster can say the same will be the time for ministers to give us lectures on us how to conduct our affairs efficiently.
Yours faithfully,
ROBERT PRITCHARD
Leader, Liberal Democrat Group
Leicester
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