Paul Blomfield
Main Page: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)Department Debates - View all Paul Blomfield's debates with the Department for Education
(13 years, 7 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Michael Gove
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that point. The former Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families commissioned work from the National Foundation for Educational Research, which demonstrated that we needed to target resources more effectively on the very poorest.
Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)
It is clear from the Secretary of State’s announcement that thousands of young people will lose out on funding as a result of the significant level of cuts. He has transferred the responsibility for bearing the bad news for those thousands to school and college heads. That is a massive task for them to undertake. How does he expect them to resource the task within individual schools?
Michael Gove
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for making his point, and I know that he has been committed to supporting better educational outcomes in Sheffield. When we consulted on this scheme, college principals themselves said they would prefer it to be discretionary, and my understanding is that both the Association of Colleges and the Association of School and College Leaders say they would prefer to be able to allocate funds in that way.