BLACKBURN with Darwen Education Authority spends almost three times as much on administration per pupil as its Lancashire counterpart, new figures show.

Tables published today by the Department for Education and Employment reveal Blackburn with Darwen spends the 15th highest amount of money on central administration out of 148 local education authorities across the country - £81 per pupil.

Lancashire LEA was seventh lowest, spending just £29 per pupil and the national average was £49.

Education secretary David Blunkett has called for authorities outside London to spend below £65 per pupil on administration in the next year

He said:"There has always been a difference between authorities' spending on red tape and the amount they have passed onto schools but this is the first government to publish all the data clearly and take measures to deal with it."

A spokesman for Blackburn with Darwen Council said that although Blackburn with Darwen was a relatively small education authority, its overall management costs were similar to other local education authorities.

He added that the schools funding review working group was considering the way services were delivered to schools and was looking at scope for further delegation. The figures did show that Blackburn with Darwen spends more money on education than the Government's guidelines recommend. It is one of just 25 councils nationwide to achieve an increase of more than eight per cent on the amount of cash spent on each pupil in the borough.

The authority only delegates 78 per cent of its Local School Budget money directly to schools but the spokesman said that was because it was the sixth highest spender on special educational needs in the country.

He said: "Education officials point out that the amount of money per pupil delegated to schools in the borough, at £2,139, is considerably above the average nationally and it is only because of the high special educational needs figure that the percentage remains low."

Coun Bill Taylor, chairman of the council's education and training committee, said: "I am pleased that the new league tables recognise the priority that the council has given to raising standards in the borough.

"This has been reflected in the extra funding that has been made available to schools.

"But I am disappointed that the nature of the league tables published fails to recognise our outstanding success in attracting additional external resources to the borough's schools to help the drive to raise standards.

"The issues raised through the league tables are already being addressed and I am confident that, through our various working groups, we will continue to listen to and work in partnership with our schools to provide the resources to ensure the best quality of education for our pupils." Lancashire County Council delegates 80.5 per cent of its Local Schools Budget directly to schools.

Chairman of the council's education and cultural services committee, Coun Hazel Harding, welcomed the publication of the tables and added: "Lancashire's results clearly show the high priority the county council places on schools.

"We already meet and exceed the targets for low spending on administration and increased levels of delegation Mr Blunkett has set for next year.

"Despite a very difficult budget settlement, the tables show we spend £2,538 per pupil - more than the average for upper tier authorities, and the 6.1 per cent increase the county has passed on to schools is also above average.

"Most of our spending is in schools to directly benefit our pupils."

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