Campaign group sees Minister (From Gazette Series)

Campaign group sees Minister

SIX members of the School Funding Campaign Group for Gloucestershire met David Miliband, Minister for School Standards, in London on Tuesday.

They were accompanied by David Drew, MP for Stroud, Jo Davidson, director of education for Gloucestershire, and Steve Savory, chairman of the Gloucestershire Primary Heads Association.

The group presented a petition of 11,000 signatures supporting the case for fairer funding, talked through the problems caused by the current low level of funding and proposed a fairer way of calculating entitlement.

In response, the Minister complimented Gloucestershire on "a laudable consensus" and said that he valued the serious work that has been done and the responsible way that the group had gone about it.

As a result of the meeting the Department for Education and Skills will

* make available the detailed figures that will allow a full analysis of the reasons for the current level of funding;

* send advisors to the county to understand funding issues and help with the implementation of workforce remodelling (a government initiative to give teachers preparation and marking time during the school day - a welcomed principle but one, in the group's view which will add significantly to the cost pressures on schools);

* evaluate work done on a different, activity-based way of calculating funding. Mr Miliband told the group: "I give an absolute assurance that the Department will look seriously at the Gloucestershire formula and discuss it with you, and, feed it in as appropriate to the national review of education funding planned for 2006-07."

Hillesley Primary School governors' chairman Gillian Hayward, spokeswoman for the campaign said: "We are really pleased with the way the meeting went as it was positive and constructive.

"We had no expectation of a quick fix. Our aim is to get a fair and transparent method of funding that ensures we can deliver high standards for all our children.

"Our job now is to ensure the agreed actions are followed through and to find partners in other poorly funded authorities who will add weight to our case.

Mr Drew commented: "I thought this was a very constructive start to a process in which we can all work together to benefit the children of Gloucestershire."