Sunderland education chief responds to Government’s promise to level up
The city’s education chief, Cllr Louise Farthing, has welcomed the Government’s sentiment to level up education for disadvantaged areas but is sceptical as to whether funding will materialise and stressed the “devil will be in the detail”.
Yesterday (February 2), Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove unveiled the Government’s plan to close the gap between rich and poor parts of the country, including a promise to “eliminate illiteracy and innumeracy by refocusing education spending on the most disadvantaged parts of the country”.
However, the report has been criticised for lacking substance, with 12 key promises identified but lacking detail as to how they will be achieved.
Cllr Farthing said: “Any additional funding for education would obviously be welcome but the Government have been good at promising but not good at delivering.
"We saw that with the tutoring programme which ended up with a shortage of tutors and teachers having to take on additional workload.
"At the moment it’s just promises, but the devil will be in the detail. It’s very early days and until i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed, I’m sceptical about the plan.”
The proposal has been criticised by the Labour Party for containing no new money with Mr Gove himself saying it was about “shifting money and power”, not necessarily providing additional funding.
Cllr Farthing added: "There will be parents in Sunderland who have difficulty reading and writing. Primary school children in Sunderland actually perform quite well but there’s obviously more we could do for both children and adults if we had greater funding.”
"Redirection of funding to more disadvantaged areas should include Sunderland but how are they going to define disadvantaged? Is the money going to be devolved to a local level so we can decide how it’s best used?
"There are talks currently going on in the background about a potential devolution deal. At the moment lots of national decisions are made based on what’s happening in London.”
John Hall, the North East National Executive of the country’s largest teaching union, the NASUWT, welcomes the principle of levelling up education but believes this should involve increased investment, “not simply a redistribution of the current pot”.
He added: “This would simply be robbing Peter to pay Paul. All schools will tell you they need money and so why should Somerset, for instance, be robbed to pay for holes in funding in the North East?
"The proposal at the moment seems to be short on substance and done to placate the electorate. If levelling up education is a priority then we would like to see the Government engaging with the unions and professional teachers over what’s needed.”
Director of the North East Child Poverty Commission, Amanda Bailey, has also been left disappointed with the White Paper, citing the eradication of child poverty not being identified as a priority.
She said: “‘The Government’s commitment to spread opportunity and improve living standards is welcome, and absolutely critical for families across the North East.
"And yet - despite our region having the UK’s fastest rising rate of child poverty - nowhere is this pivotal challenge even acknowledged in today’s long-awaited White Paper, never mind included as an area for action. Nor is reducing child poverty listed as one of the Government’s measures of levelling up success."