13 June 2003
Whitehall officials have held out an olive branch to local education authorities in an effort to quell the damaging row over schools funding that has been dogging the government for weeks.
Stephen Crowne, director of resources at the Department for Education and Skills, has this week written to every chief education officer in England, committing his department to 'learning quickly' from this year's problems.
His letter, which Public Finance has seen, is noticeably apologetic in tone and tacitly admits that Education Secretary Charles Clarke was mistaken in accusing LEAs of causing the crisis by failing to pass on £500m to schools. It also acknowledges that the system for distributing funds will have to change in time for next year.
'We know the budget-setting process has been difficult and still poses challenges in some areas,' he writes. 'We know that many authorities and schools have faced up to difficult decisions, backed by a great deal of hard work.'
He goes on: 'We are committed to learning quickly and to putting in place better arrangements for next year. We are currently working hard to make changes which address directly the issues that have arisen this year.'
The letter also pledges to announce decisions on funding and distribution changes 'in early autumn'.
LEAs have been lobbying the DfES through the Local Government Association for just such a commitment: they want reforms to be implemented quickly so they can make informed budget decisions and, more importantly, avoid a repeat of the crisis.
Graham Lane, chair of the LGA's education executive, said he was confident the row would now be resolved satisfactorily. 'The DfES had one perception of reality, we had another, and ours has proved to be right. They now accept that.'
He said that, as schools facing a shortfall had been given permission to dip into contingency funds or set a deficit budget, the LGA was no longer asking for extra money for this year. Instead, it would work to resolve the problems in time for next year.
Lane also welcomed Clarke's commitment, given at the LGA's education conference last week, not to move towards direct funding of schools from Whitehall.
In a separate development, the National Audit Office denied reports that it was launching an inquiry into the funding crisis.
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