ST ALBANS SIXTH FORMS KNOCKED BACK BY LATE FUNDING CHANGE

2.04.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 1st Apr 2009

Local head teachers have received a last minute notification of cuts in sixth form funding for next year. "It is yet another example of the incompetence of the Government's Learning and Skills Council (LSC) hitting at post-16 education in St Albans and Hertfordshire," said Sandy Walkington, Liberal Democrat parliamentary spokesperson for St Albans.

With the new system of central government funding sixth forms through the LSC, Hertfordshire schools received their so-called "final allocation funding statement" on 3rd March. The figures were then confirmed in the "final" budget information received from Herts County Council. The figures are always finely balanced, schools need to assess what courses they can afford to offer and what teaching posts they need to fill. Promises are made to next year's pupils in terms of course choices. Sandringham School for example appointed two staff on the basis of the March 3rd budget allocation, I am told that Watford Girls' School has appointed three new staff on the same basis.

Then the LSC sent local heads an e-mail after the end of the school day on Monday 30th March - two days before the new financial year beginning on April 1st - backtracking on the previously confirmed "final" settlement. This was a bolt from the blue for hard-pressed local heads, and it seems that Herts County Council was as much in the dark as they were.

Alan Gray, Head Teacher of Sandringham School in St Albans, calculates he has had £116,000 chopped from his sixth form budget next year. The figure for the whole of Hertfordshire is a cut of about £4 million, and it looks like £100 million for the country as a whole.

"Sixth form is a crucial period in education. It can't just be turned on or off like a tap," Sandy said. "Labour may have spouted 'Education, education, education' as their mantra in 1997, but it seems to be more of a case of 'Cut, cut, cut' in 2009. We have already the real fear that the LSC will renege on its promise of funding for the new Oaklands College Smallford campus because of its incompetence in managing its capital programme. Now its budgetary incompetence is delivering another kick in the teeth for local post-16 education."