LEARNING AND SKILLS COUNCIL SHOULD BE SCRAPPED AFTER FAILING STOCKPORT STUDENTS - STUNELL

12.54.00pm GMT Tue 10th Mar 2009

Andrew Speaking at Liberal Democrat Conference

The Learning and Skills Council is "not fit for purpose" and should be scrapped after it has failed to ensure that students across Stockport received the financial help they were entitled to, according to local MP Andrew Stunell.

Speaking at the Liberal Democrat Conference in Harrogate this weekend, Mr Stunell said that the Learning and Skills Council had let down students across the borough, and, along with the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCA), should be replaced by a single body, with most of the LSC's role passing handed over to local authorities.

The LSC are responsible for the funding of all of Stockport's Sixth Form Colleges, but the formula they use to allocate funds means that Sixth Form Colleges receive less funding than schools with a sixth form. The LSC have also recently scrapped the re-building of the M&C College at Marple after they ran out of capital.

Last month, Mr Stunell revealed figures that showed that 919 students across Stockport had still not received their EMA payments by early January - the start of the second term of the school year. Now Andrew intends to raise the issue again with the Secretary of State, John Denham, this Thursday in Parliament.

Commenting, Andrew said:

"The Learning and Skills Council is simply useless, and the administration of the entire EMA system has been a shambles - letting down hundred of students across Stockport.

"The LSC has clearly shown it is no longer fit for purpose, and it should be scrapped sooner rather than later."

This weekend in Harrogate, Andrew and his fellow Liberal Democrats backed the party's new plans to improve Higher Education, pledging to:

• Scrap tuition fees for first Higher Education degree qualifications

• Fully fund the off-the-job training costs of apprenticeships

• Improve access to Higher Education for under-represented groups

• Reform the bursary scheme to make it available more fairly across universities

"Labour's record on further and higher education is shameful - they have failed to pay EMA on time, and have burdened students with vast debts with top-up fees," Andrew continued.

"These new proposals would help us to revolutionise the education system in this country, and would benefit the 20,000 16-21 year-olds in Stockport.

"It is vital that our young people are given the best possible start in life, and these proposals would help deliver exactly that."

ENDS