(Winchester) (Con):...Will the Minister touch on what
resource schools in places like Winchester can tap into when they
need to make capital improvements to their site? I understand there
is a capital maintenance grant, but Hampshire County Council tells
me that its calculated liabilities—in other words, what needs
doing—are currently around £370 million, whereas the grant received
this year is around £18 million, which is obviously a big
gap.
The Minister for School Standards (Nick Gibb):...Our response to
these pressures cannot simply be additional funding. That is why
in December the Secretary of State wrote to local authority chief
executives and directors of children’s services to set out our
plans. Those plans include reviewing current special educational
needs content in initial teacher training provision, and ensuring
a sufficient supply of educational psychologists, trained and
working in the system. We will continue to engage
with Hampshire County Council and other local
authorities, along with schools, colleges, parents and health
professionals, to ensure that children and young people with
special educational needs and disabilities get the support they
need and deserve.
My hon. Friend raised the issue of capital funding. Regrading
capital funding for improvements, for financial year 2019-20 we
have allocated £22.7 million to maintained and voluntary-aided
schools under Hampshire County Council. This includes a
school condition allocation of £18.98 million for Hampshire to
invest in maintaining and improving its schools, as well as a
total of £3.7 million in devolved formula capital for individual
schools to spend on their own priorities. In 2018-19, maintained
and voluntary-aided schools in Hampshire also benefited from an
extra allocation of £6.5 million from the additional £400 million
announced at last year’s Budget...
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