A WORCESTERSHIRE councillor joined a delegation battling for a better deal on education funding in the county.

Councillor Liz Eyre, the county council's cabinet member for children and young people, joined six other representatives from the funding group F40 group in a meeting with the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) last Wednesday. F40 represents the 40 lowest-funded education authorities in the country campaigning for a fairer allocation of cash to schools.

Coun Eyre spoke to schools minister Jim Knight and the government's director of school resources Dugald Sandeman, about the school funding review in 2008/09.

The F40 group also gave a presentation focusing on what they claim is a fairer system of education funding, removing the current postcode lottery, the importance of lifting the lower-funded authorities' position and the need to eradicate inequality from the funding system.

Coun Eyre said: "This was one of the rare occasions when Worcestershire had an opportunity to present its case to such a senior civil servant in the DfES. And it was very interesting to hear what the Government said about where we might or might not make headway in securing a fairer deal for all authorities in the F40 group."

Representatives also argued for a basic entitlement for each pupil and outlined the widening gap between local authorities, year on year, which had come about because of annual percentage increases. "This was a fantastic window of opportunity to share detailed evidenced information on anomalies in the current schools funding system with the top school resources civil servant," Coun Eyre added.

"The F40's detailed evidenced information showed the impact, through case studies of the current unfair funding regime.

"The fact that I was asked to be there is because it was recognised we have a significant case for additional funding and clear evidenced information around the effects of unfair funding."