Government Audit Confirms Manchester Labour's Education Failures

6.21.48pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 14th Aug 2006

Deputy Leader Councillor Shannon Condemns Failures in Labour's Childrens' Services

Manchester City Council is failing children in the city, according to a report released today by the independent Audit Commission. The Commission believes that children in Manchester are less healthy and achieve less at school than in other parts of the country.

Councillor Paul Shannon, who is Manchester Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader and Chair of Governors at a Manchester school, stated:

"This is an unacceptable catalogue of failure from Manchester's Labour Council. School attendance in Manchester is 30% worse than in Tower Hamlets or Hackney."

"Manchester's economic future relies on our children getting the best start in life. Despite significant funding increases, that simply isn't happening at the moment. This Council have wasted a lot of education money with very little to show for it."

Cllr Shannon concluded:

"This report says that thanks to Labour's poor performance, children in Manchester will do less well at school, find it harder to get a job than elsewhere, and their life expectancy will be reduced. This is appalling, and heads must roll at Manchester Town Hall."

End

Notes to Editor:

1) Today's independent report from the Audit Commission found that:

"Children and young people in Manchester remain less healthy and generally achieve less well in schools than in other parts of the country" (paragraph 86)

"Unemployment still remains significantly above the regional and national average" (paragraph 90)

"Health outcomes in Manchester are currently amongst the worst in the country" (paragraph 106)

"Manchester still has the lowest life expectancy in England for men and equal lowest for women" (paragraph 107)

2) A July Council report on "Improving the Education Service" found that:

- Manchester Education Partnership is unable to demonstrate how it delivers value for money in the use of resources.

- Manchester invests significant financial resources in Education compared to similar authorities but there is a poor link between this and outcomes.

- Far more funding is held for local authority delivery in Manchester than in many other authorities but that additional funding is not clearly delivering improved outcomes.