30
Jun 2024
Call for next Harrogate MP to support adequate funding for schools
The next MP of Harrogate and Knaresborough needs to campaign for adequate schools funding, say local education officials.
Major parties have focussed attention on policies to tackle “rip-off” university degrees and levying VAT on private schools.
However, education officials in the Harrogate district say the issues facing the sector are more to do with funding primary and secondary schools, as well as special educational needs.
Ahead of polling day, the Stray Ferret asked those working in the sector what they would want from their next local MP.
Richard Sheriff, chief executive of Red Kite Learning Trust, told us that the main focus should be on funding schools “after many years of funding lagging behind the real costs of delivering the education service”.
He added that some of the services beyond education require investment as schools have been left to deal with the problems arising from them, particularly after covid.
Mr Sheriff said:
Services such as mental health, social care and youth justice have been starved of cash and resources over many years and schools are now left alone to deal with many of the problems that have arisen following the pandemic.
Mr Sheriff added that provision for SEND pupils was a particular issue both locally and nationally.
The Stray Ferret has reported extensively on the problem, which has been described by parents as being in a “dire situation".
Over the last year, North Yorkshire Council has received more than 1,200 applications for support from parents with SEND children. The figure is a significant increase on last year and has left council staff under pressure and parents frustrated.
Mr Sheriff said:
The main issues within the education sector locally reflect the broader national issues around funding and SEND, but locally there is a particular issue around alternative provision for children for whom mainstream education is simply not appropriate.
Gary McVeigh-Kaye.
Education missing from election agenda
The call to fund schools adequately is echoed by teachers in the district.
Gary McVeigh-Kaye, branch secretary for the National Education Union in North Yorkshire, said government spending on education should be increased to 5% of GDP.
Mr McVeigh-Kaye said it was striking that the three major parties had not said “a great deal" about education during the election campaign.
He said:
We know how much it will cost to restore proper funding to education, we don’t know the price we will pay if the next government does not commit to spending the money.
Mr McVeigh-Kaye also pointed to the need to remove the two-child benefit cap, a recruitment drive for teachers, replacing Ofsted with a “collaborative and supportive system" and more engagement with teachers over workloads as priorities for Harrogate’s next MP.
He said:
These priorities all form part of a long-term and wide-ranging strategic change that is required for our education system, particularly in North Yorkshire, where we have a high percentage of schools that fall into a group of the lowest funded schools in the country. Furthermore, there has been a £5.8 million reduction in real terms funding since 2010.
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