The TaxPayers' Alliance - Media Coverage

Yorkshire Evening Post: Leeds pupils sue for £200,000

Pupils sued Leeds schools for almost £200,000 last year as a result of injuries sustained in classrooms or on the playground.

The cash was paid out by Leeds City Council between January and December after the authority received 14 claims for compensation.

Eight children were awarded in excess of £2,000, including £11,786.67 for an injury described as "trapped finger in gate".

Another child who tripped in the playground and broke an arm was given £3,400.

Other injuries included: fractured kneecap (£3,800 compensation); tripped on flag (£2,200); slipped and fractured arm (£3,029); slipped (£3,380) and trapped finger in door (£3,200).

The highest award was £150,400 for a claim that has been described as "dyslexia". The YEP understands the cash was awarded after the council was accused of a "failure to educate" a child with the learning disability.

In total, £191,397 was paid out in compensation - the equivalent of ten new teachers.

Under Freedom of Information requests submitted to Education Leeds, which runs the local education authority, it has also emerged that last year the council paid out £3,500 to a pupil who allegedly suffered at the hands of bullies at school. That payout follows £33,363 paid to three children between 2000 and 2006 for other alleged bullying cases.

The size of the compensation claims have been condemned by Leeds-born Matthew Elliott, chief executive of national campaign group The Taxpayers' Alliance.

He said: "What's interesting about the compensation culture is that the level of compensation given by local government and schools is much higher than the compensation given by the Army for personal injuries or by the Home Office to victims of crime.

"I think it's that disparity that gets to people. There are people with often horrific injuries from their service in Iraq and Afghanistan who end up getting just a few pounds compared to others who get much more for something comparatively trivial."

In July, it emerged that a civilian typist with the RAF received a payment of £484,000 after injuring her thumb at work.

Meanwhile, 23-year-old paratrooper Ben Parkinson, whose 37 injuries included losing both his legs when a landmine exploded under his Land Rover in Afghanistan last September, was awarded £152,150 by the Ministry of Defence.

A spokesman for Leeds City Council said: "We take the health and safety of the 110,000 children and young people in our schools extremely seriously.

"Incidents of personal injury are thankfully extremely rare. We employ highly-trained teams of professionals who work to minimise the risk of injury in our buildings and public places, and investigate any incident thoroughly to reduce the chances of it happening again."

Compensation, he said, was paid from council insurance, while data protection laws prevented the authority from releasing further details of individual claims.

Daily Express: Free lunch for those who skip parents' night

STAYAWAY parents who refuse to attend school consultation evenings are being treated to free meals and even trips to cafes.   

The scheme was launched after Executive research revealed that some parents felt "intimidated" in the presence of teachers.   

Now they are being encouraged to discuss their children's progress with other mums and dads over lunch instead.   

Ministers say that the scheme - currently being piloted in Glasgow - is an example of good practice for headteachers nationwide to follow.

But last night it drew anger from critics. Blair Gibbs, campaign director of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "Adults who don't attend parents' evenings at school are letting their children down - that's not a reason to give them special treatment at our expense.

"Many committed parents struggle to afford school equipment and books, so why should their taxes be used to pay for a slap-up meal for those parents who couldn't care less?

"If these hand-outs are deemed good practice then politicians clearly have more money for schools than they know what to do with."

Tory education spokesman Murdo Fraser said: "It's fairly depressing that schools have to go to such lengths to try to engage with parents about their children's education.

"It says a lot about modern society that some parents are so uninterested in their children's schools that they can only be persuaded to participate if someone takes them to a cafe and buys them something."

The scheme was highlighted in a recent Executive report entitled Practice For Positive Relationships: Reaching Out To Families.

It states: "In examples of good general communication with parents, Scottish schools, aware of barriers to participation and communication that parents may experience, make arrangements to provide appropriate support.

"Senior staff in All Saints Secondary School (Glasgow) were concerned about low levels of participation in their parents' evenings. They reflected on the barriers that might prevent parents from attending.

"The school has also identified a number of key supporters amongst the parent group who hold 'living-room consultations' with other parents, and bring feedback to the school.

"They find that some parents more comfortable giving their views to another parent in an informal setting.   

"Key supporters receive expenses to cater for their 'group' or take them to a cafe or another venue where they feel comfortable."

An Executive spokesman said last night: "It's down to the schools. We have highlighted this as being good practice in the context of it working in some parts of Glasgow.

"It can be intimidating for some parents to go into schools and talk to teachers. That's the reality we have found in research.

"This school has found that helping those parents talk to other parents is one way to overcome those barriers.   

"That is not a green light for all schools to follow suit at great expense but if a school does have similar issues then we're saying that it's something they may wish to consider."

Last year, East Renfrewshire Council began inviting pupils to sit in on conversations between teachers and their parents.   

Many schools now offer flexible hours for consultations.   

Telegraph: Scottish pupils 'get 25 per cent more funding'

By Kate Devlin and Toby Helm   

A FRESH row over "education apartheid'' blew up last night after it emerged that secondary school children in Scotland are having almost 25 per cent more spent on their schooling than those in England.

The new figures fuelled resentment over the sums   

English taxpayers are laying out for public services north of the border, over which their MPs have no say under the devolved government in Edinburgh.

The figures from the department for Children, Schools and Families and the Scottish Executive showed that an average of pounds 4,138 was spend per primary school pupil in Scotland in the year 2005-06, - 12 per cent more than in England where it was pounds 3,684. By the time pupils reached secondary school the figure was pounds 5,771, compared with pounds 4,638 in England. The gap is expected to widen still further this school year under plans announced by Scottish ministers which involve cutting class sizes for young pupils to 18. Further reinforcing the view that Scots get a far superior education deal, the Scottish Executive, which under devolution has control of education and health policy, has started a pilot project to provide free school meal to all pupils. If successful it could be introduced nationwide.

The school meal plan was announced by Edinburgh's new Scottish National Party administration, which has also scrapped tuition fees for Scottish students starting university this autumn. The spending figures will reignite debate over the Barnett Formula - the funding system devised in the Seventies by the then Labour Treasury minister Joel Barnett - under which Scotland was given a bigger slice of spending to address deprivation, and on account of its geography.

Campaigners last night called for the government to scrap the controversial calculation which even the (now) Lord Barnett has said is out of date.

Corin Taylor, from the Taxpayers Alliance, said last night: "It is unfair that English taxpayers are subsidising higher public spending in Scotland. The Barnett formula is an unfair calculation that has had its day, Scotland is no longer one of the poorest parts of Britain and it is unfair for it to be subsidised in this way. He added: "Today's figures are just another example, after tuition fees and free personal care for the elderly, of how Scots are receiving much more generous benefits.''Education unions said the government should increase education spending in England to at least the Scottish level. The figures will also reopen demands - supported by the Tory Party - to address the so-called West Lothian Question - the anomaly under which Scottish MPs can vote at Westminster on health and education issues affecting people in England, but English MPs have no say over those subjects north of the border, following devolution.

Ben Wallace, Shadow Minister of State for Scotland, said both issues needed to be looked at.   

"The frustration is that this government started the devolution process in 1997 and it is unfinished and currently unfair.   

"The Barnett Formula is showing signs of being out of date and is not getting resources to the people who need it most. We should it review it, upholding the principle of fairness that was supposed to be at its heart.''

He added that the review should be part of a wider look at the workings of the Union, including the issues on which Scottish MPs can vote. "We now have two classes of MP in the House of Commons and until the West Lothian is solved this unfairness will fatally undermine the balance between the countries of the United Kingdom.''

Education unions said the government should increase education spending in England to at least the Scottish level.Steve Sinnott, the General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "''When Gordon Brown was Chancellor he emphasised that spending per pupil in England had to rise to the level of independent schools, which is even higher again than in Scotland. That was something that we have applauded and we are monitoring his progress towards that.'' But he added that spending per pupil had increased significantly over the last decade. A spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive said that it had been a "political choice'' to spend more on education in Scotland and one that ministers were "not unhappy with''. However, he added that it was difficult to make direct comparisons between England and Scotland because of the different systems of education and because Scotland had a higher proportion of pupils in small rural schools.

Sunday Mercury: Pupil gets £7,000 after slipping on wet school floor

By Fionnuala Bourke

EXCLUSIVE SHOCKING COST OF PAYOUTS IN MIDLANDS

A PUPIL has been awarded £7,000 compensation by Midland education bosses - for slipping on a wet floor at school.

And Birmingham City Council has paid out £4,500 to another student who injured themselves while dismounting from an exercise bench.  In total, the authority handed out £35,000 in personal injury claims to pupils last year.

The astonishing figure has raised fears that "chancer" students and parents are taking advantage of a growing compensation culture.

Teaching unions say many payments are being made for minor accidents that have always commonly occurred in schools.

Birmingham education bosses paid out £34,000 to 11 pupils making personal injury claims last year.

Other cases included:

A £5,000 award to a pupil who hurt their foot on a bench;

A £4,000 payout to a schoolboy left injured by a concrete post during football training;

And a pupil receiving £3,500 after falling over gym equipment.

The remaining six awards each totalled less than £2,000 each.

Nationally, schools are estimated to have paid out around £2 million in personal injury settlements to pupils last year.  Teachers were awarded £20 million for incidents ranging from violent pupil attacks to classroom accidents.

Lynn Collins, Midlands Regional Secretary for the National Union of Teachers, said schools were having to deal with compensation claims that would not previously have been made.  "Parents are more aware that they can make a claim these days," she said.

"Yet many of these things would have happened when they were at school and no-one would have dreamt of pursuing compensation for them." She added: "But they (the cases) do highlight the importance of health and safety in schools.

"And teachers have claimed when these arrangements have failed too."

Blair Gibbs, of the Taxpayers' Alliance pressure group, was also astonished at the pay-outs.

He said: "We are concerned about the growing compensation culture in schools. Awards paid out involves taxpayers' money which affects everyone. It is not the same as making a claim against a private company.

"Some awards are paid out far too quickly without enough checks being made as to their validity. This is encouraging chancers to try to win cash for claims they might not have submitted previously. And many solicitors firms are offering to pursue these claims on a no-win-no-fee basis. Lots of local authorities now receive claims from solicitors firms, rather than directly from the claimants themselves."

But a Birmingham City Council spokesman said: "Each individual case has to be considered on its own merits. "Legal advice is sought where necessary."

The Sun: Injured school thief wins £6k

By James Clench

A BOY who broke into a school was handed £5,700 compensation when he hurt himself swinging on a gate.  The claim was part of an estimated £2MILLION paid out to kids who were injured on school property last year.

The incredible findings were discovered through the Freedom of Information Act in a survey of 97 Local Education Authorities — nearly two-thirds of those in England. The secondary school student, from Leicestershire, broke into a local primary and was swinging on a gate when it collapsed.

The council had to shell out £5,700 as they were unable to prove that the gate had been maintained. More than two successful claims are lodged every day against councils for accidents on school premises. The largest pay-out was £21,500 for a pupil in DERBYSHIRE who suffered a back strain in a drama class after “not receiving adequate instruction”.

And in SANDWELL, West Midlands, a pupil fell while trying to retrieve his school bag from on top of a pile of chairs — and got £11,334. In KNOWSLEY, Merseyside, a child cartwheeled off a playground boulder and injured an arm — then trousered £9,000. In LINCOLNSHIRE, a student got £3,000 for back injuries sustained carrying a saxophone.

The authority which paid out the most to pupils last year was ROTHERHAM — which settled 16 claims at a cost of £121,927.  One involved a child slipping over in a urinal, while another kid was compensated after wind blew a classroom door shut on their fingers.

The results from 97 of the 150 English LEAs revealed £1.3m was paid out from 247 claims — an estimated £2m from 381 claims if other LEAs are taken into account.  The pay-outs are causing schools to introduce more safety measures. Shadow Education Secretary David Willetts said: “If councils are paying out millions because of routine accidents, it could lead to schools wrapping kids in cotton wool.”

A National Union of Teachers spokesman said: “There may be circumstances where injury could not be avoided and it is likely the pupil will be awarded compensation.  “But this will mean higher insurance premiums for the school, taking money away from every child’s education.”

A TaxPayers’ Alliance spokesman said: “The vast majority of claims are people out to make a quick buck at the expense of taxpayers.”