Schools: Academies

Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I can give that assurance. They are there for the benefit of the institution, which in this case is the school in question.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton (Lab)]

In the light of the reply he gave to my noble friend, would the Minister be prepared to state that the Government’s policy should be and is that any pupil or student—of any age, whether sixth-former or primary school pupil—is entitled to have an equivalent amount of money spent on their education, unless there is a special allocation because of special needs? Government Ministers lambast local authority maintained schools, including some church schools, for not spending money and yet claim that academies have this right.

[Lord Nash]

The noble Baroness will know that we have had a bit of a postcode lottery in school funding for many decades. This Government have gone quite some way to try and reduce the differentials but we should seek to do more in the future.