Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the warning from the Local Government Association that reductions in the central government-provided education services grant may result in some local authorities potentially being unable to meet legal obligations to schools, such as checking staff for criminal records and ensuring that buildings are free of asbestos, what recourse is available to affected pupils, parents, school staff and other local residents if those legal obligations are not met.

As announced at the Spending Review, we will be removing the Education Services Grant general funding rate from 2017-18. We recognise that local authorities will need support with this change, which is why we have introduced a new transitional grant worth £125m in 2017-18. We have also amended regulations to allow local authorities to use other sources of funding to pay for education services for maintained schools once the ESG is removed from September 2017. Local authorities are allowed to retain some of their maintained schools’ Dedicated Schools Grant so that they can continue to deliver the statutory duties they carry out on behalf of maintained schools previously funded through the Education Services Grant general funding rate.

If local authorities cannot agree with their maintained schools on the level of funding to retain, local authorities have recourse to the Secretary of State.

Funding delivered through the ESG retained duties rate, which funds duties that local authorities hold in respect of all schools, is not being removed. In 2017-18, this funding has been moved into the Dedicated Schools Grant and paid to local authorities on a per-pupil basis. From 2018-19, this funding will be allocated to local authorities through the central school services block.