Fylde schools cash stockpile (From Blackpool Citizen)

Fylde schools cash stockpile

10:05am Thursday 28th August 2008

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Fylde coast schools have been accused of sitting on more than £5m that could be spent on pupils.

Schools in Fylde and Wyre had £5.1m stockpiled in bank accounts last year, money that councillors say should be being spent, and not saved.

Cash from the schools’ grants comes from the Government and is allocated by the council, which has the power to reclaim unspent money.

Wyre County Councillor Clive Grunshaw sits on the children’s and young persons’ overview and scrutiny committee.

He said: “I'm concerned that such high cash balances are being retained by many schools.

“I'm sure that the money could be put to much better use on the day to day educational needs of pupils rather than sitting in bank accounts doing nothing.”

Wyre schools had nearly £3.5m in reserve at the end of March, while Fylde schools had £1.6m.

Councillor Vali Patel, Lancashire County Council’s cabinet member for schools, said some of the cash had already been earmarked for long-term projects, but insisted he wanted to see the amount held over, halved.

He said: “This is something we are very concerned about, because the money is there for the children’s education and should not be kept back.

“We can claim back some of these sums, and we clawed back two per cent last year. We are looking to do more than that this year, to stop too much being carried forward.

“We will warn the schools in advance, and if it continues we will reclaim the money.“ The schools with most cash left over were Hodgson High School, in Poulton, that had £352,000 in reserve, and Lytham St Annes High Technology College, with £340,000.

The primary schools with the highest cash balance were Fleetwood Chaucer Community Primary, with £163,000, and Lytham St Annes Mayfield Primary School, with £142,000.

The analysis for last year, showing the balances carried forward to March, reveals massive differences between the amounts held in reserve.

Stanah Primary School had just £15,000 in reserve and St Annes On Sea St Thomas’ Primary School carried £7,000 over.

Matthew Sinclair, spokesman for the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: “Hard-pressed taxpayers funding local schools want to see their money spent providing children with a quality education, not piling up in school bank accounts.”

Similar figures for individual balances for Blackpool schools were unavailable at the time of going to press.

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