£80,000 TRIAL TO PROMOTE OUT OF SCHOOL CLUBS TO DISADVANTAGED FAMILIES (York Liberal Democrats)

York Liberal Democrats <info@yorklibdems.org.uk>

£80,000 TRIAL TO PROMOTE OUT OF SCHOOL CLUBS TO DISADVANTAGED FAMILIES

April 28, 2009 12:00 AM

Councillors investigating the city's out of school clubs are set to meet to approve their final recommendations next week.

The Education Scrutiny Committee's draft report on the Extended Schools Agenda was published yesterday ahead of their final meeting on the 6th of May.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Keith Aspden chaired the committee. He said the committee's investigations had shown that extended schools provision across the city was of very high quality.

Councillor Aspden said, "The level of satisfaction of those using the provision was very high, showing us that where the services are available they do have a positive impact. It is important that we now look to spread this good practice further across the city and make it accessible to even more people."

"However, it is clear that the cost of accessing these services is putting a lot of families off."

Currently four schools in York are taking part in a pilot set up by City of York Council which will see them utilising £80,000 provided as York's share of a £40m Disadvantaged Subsidy Fund aimed at enabling families to access existing services. as well as purchasing new services.

The four schools involved in the trial are:

· York High School

· Westfield Primary School

· Hob Moor Primary School

· Woodthorpe Primary School

Councillor Aspden said the committee was keen to see the extra funding used to make services more accessible. He said, "In 2010/11 the Disadvantaged Subsidy Funding will rise to £217m to be used by all schools across England, giving schools more money to ensure extended services are more accessible."

"The outcomes of the existing pilot scheme will be very important in guiding how the money is used in the future and we will be recommending that the Council carefully considers how best to use this funding."

The committee will also be recommending that the current cluster working arrangements of schools providing extended services should be strengthened.

Councillor Aspden said that closer partnership working between school would allow costs to be reduced and would mean the Disadvantaged Subsidy Funding could be used more effectively.

The committee will meet on the 6th of May to agree it's recommendations before submitting it's final report to the Council Executive.