When Northumberland Labour last won enough
seats to form a minority administration in May 2013,following a five year
coalition between the Tories and the LibDems they had the Governments auditors
look at the books to locate any anomalies to ensure they could deliver ‘Best
Value’ for Northumberland’s Council taxpayers.
A number of the more serious issues revolved around the finance of the Children Services and the viability of some schools. The Council then began a deep dig to locate the full extent of the problem.
It was found that funding for schools delivering 6th forms struggled with finance as young people were disappearing from the system County-wide to take courses out of County and £3.3m of Council taxpayers cash was being used to support the demise of the Counties high schools.
It was found that young people were being furnished with first class rail travel passes as well as unlimited travel bus passes travelling to private education establishments in Durham and out of County colleges to the detriment of its own
Labour pushed on with a plan to aid schools without damaging he opportunities for special educational needs children and those who could least afford to travel to take courses that would benefit them in the future and the taxpayers bill dropped from £3.3m to an affordable figure that diminished over three years down to £240,000 whilst high school budgets recovered as students stayed local to take their higher level exams.
The Council changed hands over to the Tories during 2017
Then during early 2018 the penniless philanthropist using taxpayers cash Councillor Wayne Daley, who was in the middle of a battle with Tynedale ‘Stars’ education group, decided to unlock the Council Policy without rewriting it and give ‘Free Travel’ passes to young people if they would pay the first £50 to cover the administration costs of the scheme
The expenditure in the first year, 2018-2019 soared to £706,000 and is racing upwards towards their previous coalition spend. In year one of the ‘freedom’ an additional 748 young people joined the scheme. When coupled with their own £50, £671 was paid towards each travel pass for students roughly the same cost as a commercial pass from Arriva and the Counties other bus providers for passes which cover Northumberland, Newcastle and Tyne & Wear unlimited for the full academic year.
The other £241,000 cover the costs for 129 young people who are either SEND or members of lower income families.
This is certainly a ‘one eyed jack’ management arrangement.
As described by the outgoing external auditor the lack of independence in internal audit will mean this costly change will never be looked at clearly nor properly by the internal audit committee but as Council taxpayers questions should be asked what are the Tories attempting to not tell you.
As Laymen we would like to thank the TPA for the FOI covering this matter and hope that schools affected will openly report their concerns as the delivery of Best Value also affects them.
Items for editors:
https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/NorthumberlandCountyCouncil/media/Document-store/School%20Transport/Post-16-Transport-Policy-2020-21.pdf
