Following a meeting with the Cambridgeshire Schools Forum last week, Jim has stepped up his campaign to get a better school funding settlement for Cambridgeshire schools by drafting a letter to the Secretary of State for Education co-signed by all the other Cambridgeshire MPs.

In the letter Jim and his colleagues outline their concerns at the low level of funding which Cambridgeshire currently receives and the direct impact that this is having upon teaching and learning within the county. The MPs commend the Government on their promise to change the current funding system and ask Mr Gove to make sure that any new system “reduces the inherent unfairness” of the current system and ensures that “every pupil receives a basic funding entitlement that reflects the cost of educating a child anywhere in the country”. Currently Cambridgeshire receives £441 per pupil less than the national average – overall a difference of £35m below the national average.

Jim said, “It is unfair that due to historical accident and an out-of-date assessment of need schools in our county are funded well below the national average and it is time for this to change. I hope that by working together with my colleagues in Cambridgeshire we can ensure that any new funding system gives Cambridgeshire children a much better deal in the future.”