Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Stephen Phillips and Tim Loughton

Monday 21st November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Phillips (Sleaford and North Hykeham) (Con)]

7. What steps he is taking to ensure adequate funding for rural primary schools.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Tim Loughton)]

The Government recognise the vital contribution made by rural primary schools to their communities. We believe that in many parts of the country, the current funding has not supported rural areas properly. Our recent consultation on reforming the funding system looked carefully at how small schools should be supported and we aim to consult further on more detailed proposals in the spring.

[Stephen Phillips]

It is a fact that small rural primary schools cost, on average, 50% more to fund. With vastly reduced resources, that is a huge challenge for local authorities. What precisely is my hon. Friend doing and going to do to support funding for such schools given their importance in constituencies such as mine?

[Tim Loughton]

My hon. and learned Friend makes a good point. The current methodology was inherited from the previous Government and the funding system is based on historical and out-of-date assessments of need. The system is illogical, unfair and opaque and that is why we have had the first phase of the consultation and will be taking its findings to face further, more detailed consultation and proposals will be made in the spring. I hope that he will contribute to that process on behalf of his schools.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Stephen Phillips and Tim Loughton

Monday 20th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Tim Loughton]

The hon. Gentleman knows full well that, if his Government had left any money in the kitty, none of those funding assessments would be necessary. The truth is that schools funding, above many other things, has been protected, with an extra £3.6 billion in cash terms by the end of the comprehensive spending review period. In addition, pupil premium money will be focused on those pupils most in need—those who were most neglected by his Government.

[Stephen Phillips (Sleaford and North Hykeham) (Con)]

11. What steps his Department is taking to increase the ranking of schools in England in international league tables of educational attainment.

--- Later in debate ---

[Stephen Phillips (Sleaford and North Hykeham) (Con)]

T3. My right hon. and hon. Friends will be aware of Operation Golf, the Metropolitan police’s operation in London that has identified several hundred trafficked children on the streets of the capital, mostly from eastern Europe. What consideration have they given to ensuring that those children receive a decent education while they remain in the United Kingdom?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Tim Loughton)]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point, and I recently had a meeting with the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, my hon. Friend the Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (James Brokenshire), who takes the lead on trafficking. We want to ensure not only that those children are picked up at the border whenever possible and that we can track their whereabouts in this country, but that when we do know their whereabouts we work with local education authorities to ensure that they get the education to which they are entitled and which they desperately need. We must help them to shake off the people who have trafficked them, in many cases under the most gruesome circumstances.