Education: 16-19 Bursary Fund

Baroness Jones of Whitchurch Excerpts

Monday 11th June 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hill of Oareford]

I very much agree with the noble Baroness about the importance of making sure that the group she talks about has those opportunities. The bursary fund has a specific sum, £1,200 a year, which is available to such groups to help with costs. As she knows, our proposals for reforming special educational needs generally, with the Bill to come, cover how we can try to increase such provision. Obviously, local authorities have an important part to play in that as well.

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch]

My Lords, is the Minister aware that since the very popular education and maintenance allowance was replaced with a discretionary fund allocated by individual colleges, huge discrepancies are arising in the grants available, with young people in some of the poorest parts of London, for example, receiving the least? How can that be fair, and what are the Government doing to protect young people from the postcode lottery funding under the new scheme?

[Lord Hill of Oareford]

As we have previously debated, the Government decided that we had to change the EMA because it was going to 45% of all 16 to 19 year-olds and we did not feel that was a targeted measure of support. I recognise the purpose that lay behind it, but we felt that in a difficult time we had to make some savings. We have managed to reduce the costs by £380 million. There is the element that goes to the neediest children; that £1,200 a year is a fraction more than they would have received under the old system. However, we have taken the view, which I know is different from that of the previous Government, that local institutions such as schools and colleges should decide how to allocate the funds. We have put enough in there—£180 million—to pay the equivalent of the old EMA to 15% of that age group, which is about the proportion who were in receipt of free school meals.