Dedicated Schools Grant

Debate between Cameron Thomas and Edward Morello

Tuesday 6th May 2025 Westminster Hall

[Cameron Thomas]

As somebody who was—let us be generous—barely educated in Oxfordshire himself, I am very much aware of the issue.

My mainstream schools in Gloucestershire fall into the bottom 20% of DSG funding, earning £1,000 less per pupil than schools in the top 20. This means that Cleeve school, for example, with its 1,851 pupils, faces an approximate annual deficit of over £1.8 million compared with a similarly sized school in Middlesbrough.

[Edward Morello (West Dorset) (LD)]

I agree with all the points that my hon. Friend has made so far. This morning, I spoke to the headmaster of the Thomas Hardye school in Dorchester in my constituency. His previous job was at a London borough school in Croydon, where on average he received £10,000 per pupil; in West Dorset, that figure is £5,000. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government’s funding formula for schools does not take into account the added costs of rurality and providing services in places like West Dorset and, no doubt, his own constituency?

[Cameron Thomas]

With such gravity, my hon. Friend says it better than I could ever hope to. The inequity is there for all to see, and it is interesting that one of his teachers has experienced both ends of that scale.

My four-year-old daughter and her friends will begin their primary school education in Gloucestershire in September. I want them to have, as the Labour manifesto put it, the opportunities they deserve. To me, that means the same opportunities as every other child—but by the time they finish their GCSEs under this inequitable system, the dedicated schools grant will have invested between £10,000 and £50,000 less in our children than in those elsewhere in the country.

The Government might point to an upward trend in the dedicated schools grant in Gloucestershire since 2021, but on the current trajectory, it will take 15 years to achieve equity. By then, my daughter and her friends will have long since left school. Unless the Government act now, their potential will have been diluted by the dedicated schools grant as is. By the time we achieve equity, according to trends based on the Government’s own statistics, the vast majority of those teaching today will have retired. My headteachers have told me that, for most schools, approximately 85% of their funding is ringfenced for staffing costs, but that rises to over 90% in some particularly desperate cases.

The level of teaching experience in our schools is diminishing because our headteachers are having to make their most experienced and highly paid teachers redundant, so that they can recruit less experienced teachers on lower wages just to balance the books.

Safety of Humanitarian Workers: Conflict Zones

Debate between Cameron Thomas and Edward Morello

Wednesday 30th April 2025 Westminster Hall

[Edward Morello (West Dorset) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Lewell. I add my thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Cheadle (Mr Morrison) for securing this important debate.

As a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I have been fortunate in meeting those on the frontline of humanitarian responses, often in some of the most difficult and dangerous circumstances. They are individuals who willingly step into uncertainty. Many do so for less financial reward than they could find elsewhere; they are driven not by salary, but rather by the conviction that service to others is worth so much more. Their work is not getting easier. From Gaza to Sudan, from the DRC to Ukraine, humanitarian workers are confronting a growing number of complex emergencies, where conflict, displacement, disease, food insecurity and climate disruption are regular occurrences.

In 2024, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project estimated that one in eight people worldwide were exposed to armed conflict. Every day, thousands continue their work, delivering aid, supporting fragile health systems and helping communities rebuild. International humanitarian law exists to protect these workers, but in recent years that protection has been eroded. Eight convoys have been attacked, humanitarian staff detained and entire operations halted due to insecurity. The apparent lack of consequences for these incidents sends a dangerous message not only to those in the field, but to the international system as a whole.

The UK should be at the forefront of challenging that trend. We must continue to be a voice to uphold the Geneva convention, strengthen accountability mechanisms and press for practical tools, such as early warning systems in negotiated humanitarian corridors, that allow aid to reach those who need it most. The protection of aid workers should never be up for negotiation and must not depend on whether or not a crisis is in the headlines.

Sadly, the very resources needed to carry out this life-saving work are under threat. The reduction in the UK’s official development assistance from 0.5% to 0.3% of GNI by 2027 will lead to the closure of health programmes, education services and nutrition schemes in some of the world’s most fragile states. At the same time, cuts to United States Agency for International Development in the United States are significantly adding to the pressure that both aid organisations and workers are feeling.

What we are seeing, in real terms, is food rotting at the border crossings, vaccines that cannot be delivered, and aid workers unable to access food, fuel, shelter and basic supplies. The result is not only increased suffering on the ground, but a shrinking of the humanitarian space at precisely the moment when we need it to expand. That retreat is not just a budgetary issue; it is a strategic and moral one. When the UK steps back, others fill the void—often with radically different intentions. We risk weakening the international order that we helped to build; in doing so, we abandon those who continue to act in our name, under our flag and in line with the values we claim to defend.

The Government must also ensure that British citizens serving in humanitarian roles overseas are supported, recognised and valued. One of my constituents, who deployed as an aid worker to Ukraine, shared with me his experience of working under the threat of missile attacks without heating, running water or electricity. He was not seeking praise. He was asking whether this House values public service.

The introduction of the humanitarian medal was an important step, but the decision to exclude from eligibility those who deployed to Ukraine prior to July 2023 is deeply disappointing. For those who answered the call during the largest humanitarian crisis in Europe, the absence of formal recognition feels not only unfair but inconsistent with the spirit of the medal itself. The previous Government explicitly removed the five-year rule, and allowed eligibility only for events from 19 July 2023 onwards. Minister, how many of the British humanitarians who have deployed across the globe will be ineligible for the medal due to the 2023 cut-off point? I would like the Minister to use this opportunity to pledge to remove that cut-off, so that all those who answered the humanitarian call can be recognised.

[Cameron Thomas (Tewkesbury) (LD)]

Would my hon. Friend be so kind as to pass on my gratitude to his constituent, and echo my gratitude for anyone from our country who puts themselves in harm’s way—not for financial recognition, but for humanity, which transcends politics altogether?

[Edward Morello]

I thank my hon. and gallant Friend for his intervention. From someone who has in fact put himself in harm’s way, that is a wonderful sentiment.

There is also the broader issue of how we treat those who work on the frontline of global emergencies, often representing this country’s values abroad. That includes how we fund and support the organisations they work through. We should remember that humanitarian work is not only about crisis response, but prevention, resilience and stability. When that work is undermined, it is not just the world’s most vulnerable who pay the price; it is all of us, because the effects of conflict, poverty and displacement do not stop at borders. They shape our security, trade and the kind of world we leave behind. I hope that this debate will serve as a moment to reflect not only on what humanitarian workers do, but on what we owe them, in policy, in practice and in principle.