Clarke accused of passing buck.

Byline: By Neal Amith

Education Secretary Charles Clarke was yesterday accused of trying to shifting the blame for the schools funding crisis from the Government and on to local councils.

In a speech at the annual conference of the second largest teaching union, Mr Clarke said town halls had failed to pass on estimated pounds 500m and could now be stripped of their powers to distribute money to schools.

But his comments triggered anger in local education authorities across the North where headteachers say they are going to have to sack teachers because of budget deficits.

They say rising costs and a new Government funding formula has meant most schools are now worse off - despite Government claims they have invested an extra pounds 2.7bn into schools this year.

Yesterday, Mr Clarke told the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers the Government will publish details of how each of the country's 150 LEAs had allocated their money for schools. Mr Clarke told the Bournemouth conference that a fifth of LEAs had failed to allocate as much as pounds 5m each to schools.

"I think schools are entitled to know what money is coming to them," he said, adding more money could yet be made available for LEAs later this year and urging headteachers and LEAs not to shed staff unnecessarily.

But Elaine Kay, regional secretary of the National Union of Teachers said headteachers could not wait "for yet more empty promises of Government cash".

She said: "I think it is scandalous that the Government is blaming the LEAs for the deficit. They are shifting the blame.

"No headteacher wants to lose teachers but they are going to have to sack staff in the coming weeks because they are worse off after costs have risen more than the money they have received."

She had "every sympathy" with local authorities and could understand why they would have to shift money from the school budget so other essential services, also under-funded, could be carried out.

This year education chiefs in Northumberland passed on just pounds 12.3m of a pounds 13.1m increase in Government funding because of cost pressures in other areas.

The council has suffered historic under-funding because the cash formula fails to account for the cost of services in sparsely populated areas.

Last night deputy leader Bill Brooks said: "Even if we passported all the money for education it would not be enough to resolve all the problems in our schools."

Chairman of the Local Government Association and Newcastle councillor Sir Jeremy Beecham questioned Mr Clarke's claims, insisting that LEAs across the country were spending pounds 100m more than their Government allocation for schools.

He said: "It is councils, working locally with schools, who can assess and provide for different needs of, for example, an isolated rural school and inner city school with many pupils facing social deprivation. Whitehall cannot understand the individual needs of every school in the country."