Education leaders have welcomed a £2.2m Government settlement grant to help alleviate the schools funding crisis in Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire County Council is being given £2,193,000 to support schools in financial difficulty during 2005-2006 -- the sixth highest of 51 transitional grants being awarded to local education authorities.

The cash, announced by school standards minister David Miliband yesterday, is designed to help alleviate last year's funding crisis -- when many schools were forced to make cuts and redundancies.

Some schools had to dip into cash set aside for building repairs and most schools in the county were left with deficits of about £100,000.

The Government has also agreed increased funding of four per cent per pupil for secondary schools and five per cent for primary and nursery schools, to help them deliver the Government's workforce reform to reduce administrative pressure on teachers.

This followed last week's announcement, in the Government's Five Year Strategy, that three-year budgets would be introduced for schools from 2006.

Mr Miliband said the grants and funding increases would give schools greater "stability and certainty".

He said: "This package will also provide the stable bridge to the introduction of three-year budgets for schools from 2006-07, which will deliver unprecedented financial security to schools, the ability to plan long-term and end the confusion of funding streams and responsibilities between local and central government."

Keith Bartley, the county council's director of learning and culture, welcomed the increased funding but called for greater local control over how money is allocated.

He said: "We welcome the principle of guaranteeing minimum funding levels. This offers stability which is helpful to schools and the county council in medium term planning.

"We have some concerns, however, about the amount being guaranteed.

"In the case of secondary schools, it will in many cases only just cover the likely increases in their staffing salary costs. In some schools it may not cover those.

"We also have concerns that there will not be sufficient funds to enable primary schools to meet the demands of workforce reform.

He added: "We are pleased that the considerable financial pressure faced by Oxfordshire's schools in 2003/04 will be alleviated by the allocation of a transitional grant.

"Our only regret is that we have not been able to allocate that grant in a more flexible way which would be more responsive to our schools' needs."

John White, the vice-president of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the regional officer for Oxfordshire, said: "There are still going to be a number of schools in difficulty but this will go a long way."

Tell us what you think.