Education Secretary is right to say children in the North East are missing out, says Rayner

Commenting on the announcement by Damian Hinds, Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Education, said:

“The Education Secretary is right to say that children in the North East are missing out, but this is the result of his own government’s policies.

“The funding announced today is nothing compared to the funding that has been cut from Sure Start centres, schools, and colleges across the region. The Tories are trying to say that austerity is over, but the reality is that schools are still facing a funding crisis after eight years of deep and damaging cuts.

“Instead of tinkering around the edges, the next Labour government will genuinely end Tory austerity, investing in every part of our education system in a National Education Service for the many, not the few.”

Ends

Notes to editors:

• ·        NEU analysis shows schools in the North East were facing a £50 million cut between 2015 and 2020. (link)

• ·        Spending on Sure Start children’s centres has fallen by two-thirds since 2009–10: https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/13306

• ·        The Social Market Foundation report on inequality in education (link) said:
  • ·        “Where a child comes from now maters more for their success in later life than it did a generation ago” (p9)
  • ·        56% of children in the North East get five good GCSEs including English and Maths, which is fourth in the country (out of 11 regions)
  • ·        North East listed as a region that has “persistently under-performed other regions. They lagged behind in 1985-86 and still lag behind now.” (p15)