Education grant for Barking and Dagenham Council cut by more than £3m

The Student View is a charity that teaches young people from The Warren School and Dagenham Park CoE School how to spot misinformation and write real news stories about Barking and Dagenham to encourage them to engage with their communities. This is one of their stories. By Natasha and Allannah

Schools’ educational support budget has been slashed by £3.2million in Barking and Dagenham since 2017.

The educational services grant, that is allocated based on a set fee per pupil, is used for statutory duties that academies must provide, such as behaviour support, school improvement and assessment management.

The council’s cabinet member for education, Cllr Evelyn Carpenter, has raised concerns that the grant has been cut from £3.4m in 2017/18 to just £0.6m split over three years.

Cllr Carpenter said: “There has been a drastic reduction in the educational services grant which largely funds the statutory duties of the local authority. This is diminishing even further.

“This is in spite of no decrease in the statutory responsibilities of local authorities.

“I am very concerned about this because this funding is supposed to cover our duties with respect to the quality of education in the area, the safeguarding of children, attendance at school, and school place planning, as examples.”