In July when Schools were preparing to send pupils home for their Summer break, Justine Greening the Secretary of State for Education announced that she intends to rearrange the way in which schools are funded and in preparation for future funding rounds, that she would find funds from within the existing education budget to ensure that Schools are better resourced than at present. The need to reorganise funding on a fairer basis is a nettle that her predecessors over many years have failed to grasp. One of the important new elements of these proposals is that rural schools have been promised a much needed additional amount of funding and schools serving communities with defined social needs will benefit from the same levels of funding, irrespective of where in the nation they are located. For Sussex, the promise to assist rural schools is crucial as locations where the only education provider is a small primary school, have been hanging by a thread for decades when it comes to sustainability and so any improvement is to be applauded. Our whole community is as dependent on the strength of villages and market towns as it is on the resources available in large towns and cities such as Brighton and Hove. Now that the pupils have returned after their break, however the reality of some of these promises is beginning to emerge. Based on the conversations I have had with some rural schools it appears that whilst extra funds have been released, they have been focused exclusively on PE and so in Schools where the needs are in other departments, it is very hard to see how this will help and the risk is that the Government will claim it has delivered when in fact very little difference has been made. Further, in the last few days a number of Schools have written to parents pointing out that the promises made by Justine have amounted to a great deal less than the headlines had suggested and less than our children need if their education is to benefit. The letters claim that the increased funding is simply going to help plug gaps created by earlier cuts and increases in employment costs for members of staff. This week is the annual conference for the Tory Party and so 12 of the 16 Sussex MPs will be up in Manchester, they will no doubt be in the conference hall when Justine takes to the stage and stands in front of the podium to explain what a good job she has done. It seems vital that we do not let the Schools and our children pay the price for the sleight of words that Ms Greening has appeared to achieve. One of my big frustrations is that since the resignation of Estelle Morris, almost exactly 15 years ago, successive Governments have appointed people to the role of Education Minister whose only experience of education is based on what they learned at School and University. Justine Greening is no exception and her profession before Parliament was an Accountant, which presumably means she understands how to move funds from one place to another without necessarily much of it being spent. As residents of Sussex, each of us has the opportunity to raise questions with our MPs and most Sussex residents have a Conservative MPs. It would be great if they returned to their offices at the end of this week with a pile of letters pointing out that whilst Ms Greening has done well to address the unfair funding structure that despite this she has failed to deliver on providing what our schools need.

One of the reasons why larger schools are facing increased costs is that since April, any employer with a salary bill of more than £3m is liable to pay what is referred to as an apprenticeship levy. This funding is intended to be used in one of two ways. The first is that the employers who pay into it are eligible for a proportion of it to be used to help train new staff and existing staff who are apprentices. The second is that smaller employers are also eligible for funds for the training for their staff and future employees. However one of the problems with this second use of the money is that it is not clear what is on offer to small employers and Justine Greenings own department which is responsible for the training of members of staff has caused all sorts of problems as the training providers have discovered in applying to be eligible to provide the training. Whilst the apprenticeship levy is only one small element of the school funding black hole, perhaps the department could sort this mess out too!