Schools will be given money to sack weak headteachers

The government is to give poorly performing schools grants to sack headteachers under plans to improve leader-ship announced yesterday.

Charles Clarke, the Secretary of State for Education, told MPs that the money would be available, "to change the leadership" of the weakest schools.

The grants are part of a £175m leadership incentive scheme which will allocate £125,000 a year to up to 1,400 secondary schools in inner cities or what are described as "challenging circumstances".

Mr Clarke said he saw the grants as, "the key to raising expectations and achievement in schools". "This money will be used in a variety of ways," he explained, "including stren-gthening poorly performing departments, helping strong departments help other schools, buying in specialist advice on leadership or working together with other schools to provide leadership training.

The grants form part of a £12.8bn three-year comprehensive spending review package for schools unveiled by the Chancellor Gordon Brown earlier this year.

Mr Clarke gave MPs details of how the money – a 6.5 per cent increase in funding in real terms for schools and education authorities – will be spent. Part of the package will allow £800m a year to be transferred from the Department for Education and Skills' budget to schools and councils over the next three years.

Mr Clarke told MPs it was part of a government drive to give headteachers and education authorities more freedom to spend their cash. He said the settlement – which will eventually mean an extra £1,000 per pupil in state schools in the decade to 2006 – would allow councils to set three-year budgets for schools.

The switch in funding will give schools greater control over pay and selecting staff for advanced skills status – which would give the highest paid teachers salaries of up to £40,000 a year.

David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "While there is no doubt that – in many ways – this is the best settlement that education has had for many a long day, I think there will still be a number of heads who will remain sceptical as to whether they will get enough cash to carry out the major reforms the Government is looking for."

He said the cash incentives for schools to sack weak heads were, "more about rhetoric".

Mr Hart also said he was writing to David Miliband, the Minister for School Standards, to urge the Government to extend the leadership grants to primary schools.