Government accused of 155m cut to school funding

Baroness Margaret Eaton, chair of the LGA, said the Department for Education (DfE) decided not to pay schools the full amount of the so-called "standards fund" just days before the start of the new financial year on Wednesday.

She warned the move would leave councils significantly out of pocket at a time when they are already facing a 28 per cent reduction in funding over the next four years.

"This will place additional pressures on council budgets through no fault of their own and will mean they either have to reduce their funding to schools at this late stage or absorb the shortfall into their already stretched financial plans," she said.

"We would expect the DfE to deal with the consequences of this problem, which is of their making, and not to pass the burden on to councils and schools.

Ultimately, council taxpayers will be left to foot the bill to the tune of £155m unless the department reverses its decision and pays the standards fund due for 2010/11 in full in addition to the dedicated schools grant for this financial year."

A spokeswoman for the DfE refuted Eaton’s claims, arguing that the standards fund money has not been cut.

"It has gone into the overall school funding pot," she said. "Schools will receive the same amount of money as last year and local authorities should be spending the same amount of money on them. We have written to local authorities with advice on the payment arrangement changing."

Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s shadow education secretary, claimed the move was another example of "shambolic management" on the part of Education Secretary Michael Gove.

"There is a growing state of chaos in the education budget as Michael Gove shuffles money around his department to put out one fire only to start another one somewhere else," he said. "Young people are bearing the brunt of his mismanagement."