Watford Sixth Form students face funding cuts

2.04.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 6th Apr 2009

Sal and local students

Local schools have been informed by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) that their sixth form funding for next year has been reduced. This has left Watford schools with a huge funding shortage.

This change in funding comes at a time that Government are passing new laws to make young people stay in education until they are 18. Schools and colleges are being asked to educate more students with no extra funding, and in some cases less funding than before.

At the moment, only the schools in Watford are aware of the funding cuts, because further education colleges like West Herts College won't know their exact funding allocation sent to them until later in the year, but it is likely to affect them as well.

Sal Brinton, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Watford, said " This is an absolute disgrace. The Labour Government has trumpeted how important it is to keep young people in education until they are 18, but has failed to fund the increase in student numbers. Our schools and colleges must not be asked to face substantial budget cuts because of the governments incompetence. I urge Ministers and the Learning and Skills Council to provide the budget necessary for next year.

" Even more frustrating for local schools, they were given a provisional allocation in early March, called a final allocation funding statement which appeared to give them the full amount. It is understood that some schools may have made new staff appointments to cope with the extra pupil numbers, but have now discovered that the budgets have been handed out in error "