May: We’ll listen to fears over £20m budget cuts Prime Minister says school funding consultation is genuine
PRIME Minister Theresa May has left the door open for significant changes to a controversial new funding formula which could see city schools lose £20 million.
Speaking to the Birmingham Post this week, she said her approach to Government was to ask people whether proposals are “going to work” – and to consider changes based on the response.
Planned changes to funding would leave Birmingham schools £20 million poorer, according to a consultation published by the Department for Education.
And a number of Conservative MPs have also opposed the planned changes.
In some cases Tories in shire counties where funding is set to rise have argued that the increase does not go far enough.
Asked if the proposals could change, Mrs May said: “It [The Department for Education] is genuinely looking at the responses that we’ve had and the consultation.”
Her government was putting more emphasis on Green Papers and White Papers – the consultation documents published before firm decisions are made – than previous administrations, she said.
“We’ve been doing far more through Green Papers and White Papers, so far more through a process which is openly saying to people, ‘here’s what we’re looking at doing. We are consulting on you. Is this going to work?’” said Mrs May.
“So it is about looking at the responses and then coming forward with a proposal in due course.
“And obviously we had a lot of responses. So it won’t be in the next few days that we are responding.”
However, the Prime Minister said changes to the school funding formula were essential.
“I think everybody has accepted for a considerable length of time that the current funding arrangements are not fair so we’ve got to try and find a fairer funding formula,” she said.
“The point about the document and the proposals that the Department for Education put out were that they were a proposal on which we were consultation.
I think everybody has accepted for a considerable length of time that the current funding arrangements are not fair.
“The consultation only closed last week.
“So now we’ve got to take the opportunity to look at the responses that have come in from that consultation and then in due course bring froward our proposals.
Mrs May was speaking to the Birmingham Post during a visit to the Second City, in which she attended the UK-Qatar Business and Investment Forum at Birmingham’s ICC.
Prime Minister Theresa May