Schools Update

Debate between Justine Greening and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown

Monday 17th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I think I have been very clear that every school will see gains from the announcement that I have made today, which I hope is good news. It is a reflection of the need to strike a balance between bringing up traditionally underfunded schools and recognising that those receiving higher funding need help to some extent to get on to the national funding formula.

[Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds) (Con)]

I warmly welcome today’s announcement from my right hon. Friend. This is a real moment of celebration for those of us who have been campaigning with the f40 Group for years for a proper fair funding formula. Will she confirm to my governors and headteachers in Gloucestershire that by 2020 all schools currently receiving £3,800 per pupil will be receiving £4,800?

[Justine Greening]

I have set out that we will have a minimum of around £4,800, which will be transitioned in over these two years. That is good news, and I pay tribute to my hon. Friend who has been a tireless campaigner on fair funding. He has done an outstanding job of being very clear with me about his local community concerns and also his desire to see fair funding. It is responding to colleagues like him that has led to the statement today.

Education and Local Services

Debate between Justine Greening and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown

Tuesday 27th June 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mark Harper (Forest of Dean) (Con)]

Will the Secretary of State give way?

[Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds) (Con)]

Will the Secretary of State give way? I have been very patient.

[Justine Greening]

I will give way to my right hon. Friend the Member for Forest of Dean (Mr Harper), and then to my hon. Friend the Member for The Cotswolds (Geoffrey Clifton-Brown).

[Justine Greening]

My right hon. Friend is right. Under the Labour Government, youth unemployment went up by just under 50%. It was not just young people from lower income backgrounds coming out of the education system often without basic skills. It was graduates who came out of the system and could not find a job. We are determined to make sure that never again is there a lost generation of young people in our country coming out of the education system wanting a career but not even being able to find a job.

[Geoffrey Clifton-Brown]

I congratulate the Secretary of State on giving way to me. May I commend her on the increase in standards in education? To improve those standards still further—the current funding formula is unfair and depends on a lottery code—does she agree that every pupil and every school deserves fair minimum funding?

[Justine Greening]

As my hon. Friend knows, we are absolutely committed to making sure that we have fair funding across our schools. We had an extensive consultation that received 25,000 responses, which we have gone through. We are pulling together what that means for the right way forward. He is right to point out that many schools in his local community have been systematically underfunded, which is not tenable in a country where we want all children to receive consistent investment and a consistent opportunity to make the most of themselves. We are determined to introduce our plans to ensure that schools are fairly funded, wherever they are.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Justine Greening and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown

Monday 6th February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I think it is because we are using accurate data. We end up in a straightforward place. First, do we believe that our children should be funded fairly during their time in school, wherever in the country they are growing up? Secondly, do we believe that deprivation funding should be based on up-to-date data? If the Labour party wants an approach that is unfair and based on out-of-date data, I will be happy to see its submissions to the consultation.

[Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds) (Con)]

6. What progress her Department is making on the proposed national funding formula for schools.

School Funding

Debate between Justine Greening and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown

Wednesday 25th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds) (Con)]

In my constituency, which already has one of the lowest-funded education authorities, two thirds of schools will receive a cut and a third will receive a maximum increase of 0.3%. That situation will undoubtedly lead to teacher losses and probably school closures. Will my right hon. Friend undertake to look at the situation? This might be only a consultation, but the proposal needs a radical overhaul.

[Justine Greening]

I recognise my hon. Friend’s concerns. I am happy to talk to him one to one about his local community, as I have done with other colleagues. We are undertaking the consultation so that we can ensure that we get the new formula right. It is important that the formula works effectively on the ground. Alongside it, we will make sure that we protect the funding for deprived communities so that we can use that mechanism to tackle the attainment gap. We have also made sure that an element of our formula follows children who start from further behind, for whatever reason. Low prior attainment is properly addressed in the formula to make sure that if a child needs additional investment to help them to catch up, wherever they are in the country, that investment is there.

The second stage of the consultation on the funding formula runs until 22 March. We want to hear from as many school governors, schools, local authorities and parents as possible. I know that colleagues on both sides of the House will also want to contribute. As I said, we have put a lot of data alongside the consultation because we want to ensure that people have the information that they need to be able to respond. The transparency that the new formula will give us also means that we will have much more informed debates in this House about how we want to fund our schools, and the relative balance we want between core funding, deprivation funding and low prior attainment funding, as well as issues such as sparsity.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Justine Greening and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown

Wednesday 22nd January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right to raise this incredibly important question, which we pursue through our Foreign Office with the Burmese regime. She will be aware that we have put in significant humanitarian support, particularly focused on internally displaced people in the region.

[Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds) (Con)]

Having just returned from the Nizip-2 Syrian refugee camp, where the conditions were quite good, I pay tribute to the Secretary of State’s Department for what it is doing there, but what is my right hon. Friend doing to make sure that some of the other camps in front-line countries are as good as that one?

[Justine Greening]

I thank my hon. Friend for the amazing trip that I know he had during the last couple of weeks to Turkey and the social action projects in the camp there. He is right to raise the issue of conditions in the camps. The UK works with UN agencies to ensure that they are as good as they possibly can be.

Overseas Aid (Private Sector Contracts)

Debate between Justine Greening and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown

Monday 11th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

My hon. Friend is very well placed to ask that question, and she is entirely right. I think that we should be proud of the work of companies such as John Lewis and Waitrose, which not only makes business sense for them but makes a huge difference to the thousands of young people whom they are not only employing but “skilling up” in countries such as South Africa. We are delighted to be working with Waitrose. It is projects of that kind that have led me to announce today that I want to do more, and to do it in a more structured way.

Let me also thank my hon. Friend for the incredibly important work that she has been doing in raising awareness of female genital mutilation.

[Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the public sector is often too large in the poorest countries in the world? Is not the best way in which her Department can help to release people from poverty sustainably to create a climate in which the private sector in those countries can flourish? Has that not been proved in countries such as Vietnam?

[Justine Greening]

My hon. Friend is right. Part of DFID’s work involves helping to create developing-country environments that are, as it were, “investable in”. That means pursuing the Prime Minister’s “golden thread” agenda in relation to the rule of law, the ability to set up contracts and the establishment of the right legal base. Those will all be key ingredients if we are to see business flourish in developing economies.

Syria (Humanitarian Response)

Debate between Justine Greening and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown

Monday 4th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I do not believe that Russia made a significant contribution at the donor conference. The most important thing that we would like to achieve with Russia and China is a breakthrough that would enable us to have a UN Security Council resolution, which would be similar to the approach taken in Mali, where it was possible to take action as a result of a consensus across the international spectrum. That UN Security Council resolution cannot be passed at the moment, which, critically, makes it much more complex for us to be able to reach people inside Syria with humanitarian aid. It also makes it much more complex to start the political and diplomatic dialogue needed to reach a long-term settlement. That is what is needed and I am absolutely clear that, although we are providing humanitarian support, the UK has not ruled out any action. Ultimately, however, we want to press forward on a political and diplomatic route.

[Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds) (Con)]

I was at a conference over the weekend with both Turkish and Jordanian representatives, both of whom said, independently, that the international community could do more to help with the refugee problems in their respective countries. I say to my right hon. Friend that simple things, such as blankets to keep children warm, are needed now in the camps in Jordan. Could they not be delivered quicker bilaterally—that is, we give directly to the country rather than through the UN mechanism?

High-speed Rail

Debate between Justine Greening and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown

Tuesday 10th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

We have reached a conclusion on phase 1, which I have announced, and we have looked at such proposals. Network Rail is now able to look at the possibilities arising from the released capacity on conventional lines. That has the potential to address some of the points that the right hon. Gentleman raised.

[Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds) (Con)]

I welcome today’s announcement on an important piece of our national infrastructure. As such, will my right hon. Friend consider all of us who represent constituencies west of Heathrow and make sure that the connectivity from the west into the new network is as good as possible?

[Justine Greening]

Yes, I will. We are always looking at ways to improve that, and I welcome the chance to talk to my hon. Friend about it.