THE new local authority funding system to be introduced next year will prevent councils from spending central government cash that has been allocated for education on anything else, the National Association of Head Teachers believes.

Local authorities will also have to tell council taxpayers exactly how much they are spending on each primary and secondary pupil. The information will be sent out with council tax bills.

“Funding will be transparent and it will be easier for people to see what their children receive compared with other areas,” said Jack Hatch, the NAHT’s national treasurer. “It will also end the smoke-and-mirror trick, where councils and central government blame each other for shortcomings.”

Mr Hatch is a member of one of the strategy groups which have been advising the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions on much-needed reforms to the current funding fog.

He said that the new regulations - planned to take effect in 20034 - will allow the Government to privatise local education authorities that do not spend all the money they have been allocated for education. Currently, councils can divert education money received through the Standard Spending Assessment to prop up other departments.

But the NAHT is disappointed that LEAs are now likely to be represented on the forums that will advise each education authority on schools funding.

Originally the plan was for the forums to consist solely of elected headteachers and governors. The Government is thought to have crumbled under pressure from the Local Government Association and the churches, which will also probably have representatives, along with the teaching unions.

“The danger is that the forums will just replicate the old-fashioned council education committees. We need people at the cutting edge of education to monitor funding,” said Mr Hatch.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads’ Association, also has misgivings about the forums.

“They must not just rubber-stamp decisions made by councillors,” he said.

“LEAs must not be allowed to make major decisions on funding without proper consultation, as some of them do now.”

One of the main duties of the forums will probably be to advise councils on the funding formula applied to schools, which will be based on a detailed analysis of what the schools do and the expectations placed on them.

The timescale for establishing the forums is tight. Consultation on their role will only start next month, yet the Government wants them to be ready to begin work by October 31. Despite the contentions surrounding the forums, the NAHT and SHA feel that a fairer system is at last in sight.

“We have been demanding changes for more than a decade,” said Mr Dunford. “It is grossly unjust that children’s life chances should depend on where they live.”

The reforms will not apply to Scotland and Wales, which will retain their current funding systems. “Headteachers would love to be involved in changing the Welsh system, where the funding fog is even denser than in England,” said Mr Dunford.

“Heads in Wales are tearing their hair out as the Welsh Assembly seems determined to retain maximum control over schools’ funding for LEAs.”