12.7    Motion regarding School Funding

Councillor Rachael Saundersmoved and Councillor Danny Hassell seconded the motion as printed in the agenda.

Councillor Rachael Saunders proposed the following amendment to the motion in respect of sentences 3, 4, and 5 under ‘This Council notes that’:

3. Delete ‘£18.8m by 2018/19’, a 7.6% cut and replace with ‘ £32.5m by 2020 – the equivalent of 873 teachers, according to analysis by the NUT’

4.  Delete ‘£511 per pupil by 2018/19’ and replace with ‘£905 per pupil by 2020’.

5.   Delete ‘£360m by 2018/19’ and replace with ‘£657m’ and delete ‘12,857’ and replace with ‘17,638’ and add (NUT analysis) to the end of the sentence.

Councillor Rachael Saunders and Councillor Danny Hassell altered their motion accordingly:

Councillor Oliur Rahman moved and Councillor Ohid Ahmed seconded a friendly amendment to the motion as set out below:

Under This Council believes, add the following:

This Government proposal puts at risk the great strides made in Tower Hamlets by successive administrations. For example, an independent report in December 2013 “Transforming Education for All : the Tower Hamlets Story” concluded that Tower Hamlets has some of the best urban schools in the world.

Under Council Resolves, add the following (bold emphasis part) in point 1

To call on Mayor Biggs to write ‘on a cross-party basis’ to the Department for Education……

Councillor Rachael Saunders and Councillor Danny Hassell indicated that they accepted the amendment and altered their motion accordingly.

Following further debate, the motion as amended was put to the vote and was agreed.

RESOLVED:

This Council notes that:

1.            Tower Hamlets is a place of huge diversity, and deprivation, and over the last 20 years families, schools, young people and the Council have come together to drive up standards through collaboration and through a determination to achieve excellence – backed by a Labour government which funded us appropriately. This is now at risk from Tory cuts.

2.            The Government has proposed a new school funding formula, which will take money from poorer areas and reallocate it to wealthier areas.

3.            The impact of the changes, included with other cost pressures, mean that schools in Tower Hamlets will have to save ‘ £32.5m by 2020 – the equivalent of 873 teachers, according to analysis by the NUT

4.            Schools in Tower Hamlets will lose £905 per pupil by 2020, making the borough the hardest hit in London.

5.            Cumulatively schools across London will need to save £657M under the new system – equivalent to 17,638 qualified teachers (NUT analysis).

6.            The Government’s Budget 2017 included £360m for new free schools and grammar schools, but ignored the financial crisis that our existing schools face.

This Council believes:

1.            The new funding formula won’t bring about fairer school funding across the country. Instead, it will further cut funding from schools already struggling with education cuts.

2.            The new formula will put the progress made by our schools in jeopardy by punishing pupils from the poorest areas and harming social mobility.

3.            That schools in Tower Hamlets deserve to be fairly and properly funded.

4.            This Government proposal puts at risk the great strides made in Tower Hamlets by successive administrations. For example, an independent report in December 2013 “Transforming Education for All : the Tower Hamlets Story” concluded that Tower Hamlets has some of the best urban schools in the world.

This Council resolves:

1.            To call on Mayor Biggs to writeon a cross-party basis to the Department for Education, highlighting the threat to progress that the school funding changes represent.

2.            To support the Mayor’s campaign to challenge these unfair and deeply damaging cuts to schools in Tower Hamlets.

Motions 12.1 – 12.6 and 12.8 - 9 were not debated due to lack of time.