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Schools Funding (Cornwall)

Thank you, Lady Winterton. It is nice to get the leeway of a few extra minutes. That is very welcome. I want to speak about an issue that has been of great significance to me for the 23 years that I have been a Member of Parliament: delivery of education of the best quality possible in our schools in Cornwall. The context now is one of severe funding constraints that are partly historic and that partly look forward to the realities of the likely impacts of the credit crunch and deficits on spending in the next spending round, particularly on the capital side. The Government, whoever may be in power, will have to deal with that, and with how those constraints are filtering down to create pressures in Cornwall right now. A review of schools has been initiated that may lead to the closure of smaller schools in particular. In terms of funding per pupil place in school each year, Cornwall is the 141st worst-funded local education authority in England, right down at the bottom of the list. Alongside it are similar poorer rural communities in Devon, Somerset and other places across the country. I share the strong sense that the present funding system does not adequately address the needs of rural communities; in particular, it does not adequately address the needs of the poorer and most disadvantaged rural communities, where poverty can be intermingled with apparent wealth, and where it exists in what most people regard as extremely pleasant surroundings. That does not make things any easier for individual families or for the schools. My village school at St. Dennis does an absolutely fabulous job in all respects, but, like Whitemoor and Roche schools up the road, it has to cope with an intake of very disadvantaged children who need all kinds of special support. It has to deliver that in the context of much lower funding than that delivered in urban deprived communities. Cornwall council has just initiated a review of primary schools, the implicit threat being that a number of schools potentially face closure, partly in the name of tackling surplus places and high cost, although I am sure that that will be described in terms of the quality of educational opportunity offered to children. I want to challenge the Minister to make a solid commitment to improving funding for the rural, disadvantaged communities that I am talking about, and I do so only too well aware of the financial context. More importantly, I recognise that village schools cannot be properly valued by a simplistic model that attaches so much emphasis to surplus places across a local education authority. One core reason for that is that, in a community with a large number of small schools, a large number of surplus places overall may not correspond to many empty seats in any one school. It is not possible to rearrange the provision of education in a rural setting in the way that that is possible in an urban setting, where it might be easy for children to go to another school: if one school closes, another will be near on hand. In rural areas, the closure of a village school is devastating for the children and the community, because it often means a lengthy bus trip, at best, to a school that is relatively remote and it often means the heart being ripped out of the community. Let me provide a little background. As of January 2009, there were 237 primary schools in Cornwall, ranging in size from those with 499 pupils to those with just 11. More than 36,000 pupils are on roll, but they are dispersed in a number of schools of different sizes over a wide area. On attainment levels, the community is disadvantaged, with many children with all sorts of difficulties entering the primary schools. That is reflected at key stage 1, with a slightly below-average national score, but a good score in a contextual analysis. By key stage 2 level 4, attainment is broadly in line with the national figures, despite that disadvantaged entry, and at key stage 4 in secondary schools the children do well in a contextual basis. So there is no question but that the schools deal well with a difficult intake and help push the children further in respect of the national comparison. That does not just happen because the children are in the hands of the wonderful staff and teachers in the schools; it is also a reflection of the kind of communities that the children live in, where there is disadvantage and poverty and all sorts of problems, but also a stronger community and neighbourhood than those in which children in poorer more urban areas all too often live. As a result of that, no primary schools in Cornwall are in special measures and only one school has a notice to improve—and it looks as if that will be removed shortly. The estate includes a lot of old schools: 20 primary schools still do not have a hall, there are 104 temporary classroom buildings and the backlog of maintenance is estimated at some £25 million. Although we welcomed the pathfinder status for Cornwall and although there has been investment, there is still a lot to do. In this context, understandably, Cornwall council is concerned about future capital allocation and is well aware that surplus places will be one of the core drivers of whether money is made available. If the surplus places are not removed, the money is unlikely to come through for the improvements that are obviously needed in the context of so many schools being without even a school hall, for example. With surplus places at 11 per cent. and a forecast for that figure to increase over the next four or five years, there is, as a result of national funding programmes, real pressure on the country to do something about the issue. The difficultly is that the surplus places are, by and large, scattered over large numbers of schools and are not concentrated, meaning that the pressure is on to cut some schools out of the system. Added to that is the reality of the costs of delivering education to children in relatively small schools. The outcomes in small schools are good. I have long hosted meetings annually with Members of Parliament in the House of Commons for a number of organisations that campaign on behalf of small schools. We have consistently shown the data showing good outcomes from small schools. There can be bad outcomes when those go wrong, but when such schools are well run they produce better than average outcomes. One argument often made for closure is that small schools with a small teaching staff cannot adequately provide for the wide age range among children, but the data show that that is wrong. The flip side is that in Cornwall the cost per pupil for delivery, comparing the difference between the largest and smallest schools, ranges from just under £2,500 per pupil to some £15,000 per pupil, with the average being about £3,500. There are real costs in the delivery. The truth is that delivering education in small village schools is fundamental to the sustainability of many smaller communities. Take the school away and there is no provision for families to stay there: they cannot do it because they cannot get their children back and forth. Take the school away and often the hub for a lot of other services and facilities for the village is removed. The school is the meeting place and there are opportunities to use IT in a lot of community schools. More could be done to build on that.