THE recent meeting of the Lancashire Schools Forum discussed the difficulties which schools across the county are experiencing in managing their budgets.

Lancashire received a below average increase in Government funding in 2003/04 but the

county council exceeded the DfES passporting target for schools budget by three per cent.

Increases in teachers pay, national insurance and superannuation together with changes to the operation of the standards fund and a shortfall in the funding of performance-related pay have left many schools without sufficient funding.

Governors and headteachers have made use of reserves but they have also had to cut important elements within their budgets.

In short, they have been forced to cut the provision of education for young people in their schools.

The forum's prime concern is to ensure that schools receive adequate funding in order that young people may receive a high-quality education. We recognise that since 1997 education resources within the LEA have improved significantly but are concerned that the local government settlement this year has caused schools to make the sort of savings not seen since the 1980s and early '90s.

The DfES, we are told, under spent last year by £1bn, if this is so why cannot some of this money be released to resolve problems which schools are facing?

JF Davies (chairman Lancashire Schools Forum),

Carr Hill High School, Kirkham.