Extra £741,000 for education

WARRINGTON has won additional funding of £741,000 for special educational needs, following a meeting with education minister David Laws.
The extra funding has been welcomed by Cllr Colin Froggatt, the borough council’s executive member for children and young people’s services.
He said: “Securing an extra £741 000 a year together plus the upcoming redevelopment of the old Woolston High School site will ensure that we are offering the best provision and support for local learners with special educational needs.”
It was last year that the council became concerned that while responsibility for special educational needs (SEN) for pupils aged 16 and over was transferring to local authority, the central funding allocation to it was not fully transferring with it.
Both Warrington’s MPs – Helen Jones and David Mowat – were approached talks were held with with government officers who advised that funding for SEN should come from Warrington’s Dedicated School’s Grant, which covers all schools.
Any unexpected pressures would have entailed a wider impact for learners across the borough.
Earlier this year, Ms Jones arranged a meeting with David Laws and, after Warrington presented its case, additional funding to the tune of £741 000 was agreed by the DfE.
Ms Jones said: ”I am delighted that, following the meeting with the Warrington delegation, the government has reviewed their stance and agreed to the additional funding.
“As I have said, at the heart of this dispute were the young people who did not seek this problem, and did not deserve to have the consequences of insufficient funding foisted on them. They deserve to have their needs met and hopefully they now will be.”
Cllr Froggatt added: “When we found out responsibilities but not the funds to undertake them were being transferred to us we immediately contacted the Department for Education to see if there was anything we could do. Warrington has never been a well funded authority and the only way we could have covered the costs would have been by depriving other areas of the education system of vital funding.”