Tories cry foul over ‘lavish’ knees-up for head teachers Taxpayers’ cash at stake for event which hosted comedian
ABIRMINGHAM head teachers’ group has come under fire over a £250-per-head conference and “lavish” celebrity dinner headlined by comedian Ruby Wax.
The Birmingham Education Partnership and Birmingham City Council has been slammed for spending taxpayers’ money on the conference and three-course meal at the Hilton Metropole Hotel at the NEC.
The Partnership and council education chief have strongly defended the event, insisting it was self-financing and that Wax was speaking on mental health which is a major issue for pupils and schools.
The price of the dinner was £20 per head, with the rest covering the cost of the full-day conference.
But opposition Conservative education spokesman Matt Bennett suggested that head teachers and school leaders were having a knees-up on the taxpayer at a time when performance in city schools was falling.
Councillor Bennett (Edgbaston) said: “A lavish threecourse dinner was provided with celebrities TV’s Ruby Wax and Sameena Ali Khan, top of the celebrity tree there.
“Attendees were mainly head teachers, I believe, and also representatives of the council.”
He said he believed the dinner was chicken cordon bleu with “wine on the table”.
“The conference was selffinancing but, given that the tickets would have been paid for by organisations from the public sector and indeed one of the private sector sponsors was Service Birmingham who get most of their money from the council, it is difficult to see this wasn’t funded by the taxpayer
“I’m sure everyone attending this dinner with the threecourse meal and wine flowing freely gave positive feedback. I would suggest the focus should be on improving schools.”
The Birmingham Education Partnership was set up in the wake of the Trojan Horse scandal to encourage schools across the city to work together on improvement.
But Coun Bennett said there had been little sign of improvement as the rate of children gaining five A-C grade GCSEs in Birmingham had fallen in the last year from 54.3 per cent to 53.7 per cent.
Labour cabinet member for children’s services Brigid Jones (Selly Oak) said that the teachers’ dinner had a mental health theme and that Ruby Wax had recently completed a degree on the subject and was talking about her experiences.
“It is the big campaign area for the Partnership,” she said.
She added: “Networking events add a huge amount of value. We have 400 schools in the city and events to network and share best practice are few and far between.”
She said that her dinner ticket and those of council officials had been complimentary, although five officials were sent to the conference at a cost of £230 each.