Quarter of sixth-form budgets cut back

One in four secondary schools has had its sixth-form budget cut because of government changes to the way of funding.

An investigation by The Independent revealed that schools have had to cut subject options for pupils, increase class sizes or abandon plans to broaden the sixth-form curriculum – despite a government pledge they would be granted a hedge against inflation.

Ministers have set up a new quango, the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), which took over the funding of school sixth-forms in April. Its powers came into force with a pledge from David Blunkett, when he was Secretary of State for Education, that sixth-form budgets would be protected "in real terms". But headteachers' leaders demanded yesterday that Estelle Morris, who succeeded Mr Blunkett as Secretary of State, hold urgent talks with the council to sort out what they claimed was a "shambles".

The heads say money has been wasted on bureaucracy instead of being spent "at the chalkface".

A snapshot of the budgets of more than 80 schools reveals that 25 per cent are worse off as a result of the switch-over.

And more than one third of those whose sixth-form budgets rose said they they still faced cuts in their overall budgets.

The Hasmonean High School, a top performing Jewish comprehensive in Barnet, north London, is facing one of the biggest cuts – £92,000 – found by the survey.

It claimed it was being penalised because the LSC had given higher funding for vocational courses.

Rabbi David Radomsky, the headteacher, said: "Our funding has been severely curtailed and the only way we can [deal with it] is to offer fewer academic subjects, make staff redundant and increase class sizes – hardly a recipe for raising standards."

Even worse off is Thomas Mills High School, one of the Government's new specialist technology colleges, which said it had lost £111,369 this year. David Floyd, its headteacher, described the handover of powers as "an utter shambles". The school is being forced to introduce large sixth-form classes – partly as a result of succeeding in the Government's aim of encouraging more pupils to stay on at school after 16.

Many headteachers who responded to The Independent survey said the new financing regime was a "shambles". Under it, the new quango estimates how much money sixth-forms should have and passes it on to local education authorities, which hand it over to the schools. Previously, the local authorities determined school budgets. A head from Staffordshire, said: "I cannot understand why money is taken by the council to be given to the local education authorities to give to schools. It seems pointless and bureaucratic."

Paul Strong, the head of William Farr Church of England comprehensive in Welton, Lincoln, which topped The Independent's A-level performance tables last year, said: "It is a farce. Why cannot money go straight to schools instead of through the LEA, which can then manipulate it?"