Tough time for opt-out heads

Head teachers in a west London borough are becoming increasingly concerned at the heavy workload and alleged underfunding they face as a result of opting out of local authority control.

Rod Stafford, head of Mellow Lane grant-maintained school and chair of Hillingdon secondary-school heads, said they have all seen their workload increase since they switched to opted-out status.

Mr Stafford voiced growing concern at the funding arrangements: 'We are not getting what we should. ' He said that his school was pounds 200,000 short of what it should have. 'We would blame only one body for that, and it's Hillingdon Council.'

He argued that Hillingdon council has underfunded the schools in the past, which has distorted current funding.

Heads are particularly concerned because Hillingdon is one of only two London boroughs taking part in a pilot project this year to base grant-maintained schools' funding on the profile of the local population, rather than using a figure based on former local authority funding.

Head teachers are concerned that future funding arrangements are still uncertain as the pilot arrangements will last only this year.

'It's very difficult for us to plan satisfactorily if we can't predict what our income will be in the years ahead,' said Mr Stafford. But he denied that heads might wish they had not opted out in the first place.

Peter Ryerson, Labour chair of Hillingdon's education committee, said that he had heard otherwise, though none of the heads would admit it publicly. 'Some of the heads are getting very disgruntled.'