FRESH pressure is being applied to the Government over Worcestershire's school fairer funding plight.

The Conservative leadership at Worcestershire County Council has urged Education Secretary Justine Greening to press on with her promise to deliver "real change".

It comes as bosses agreed the latest school funding arrangements from September 2017 across the county, with the cash sums essentially flat.

Under the latest package no school will either gain or lose more than 1.5 per cent of its per-pupil funding next year, under a formula which will not change from 2016.

During a cabinet meeting to agree the policy, Tory councillors again urged the Government to crack on at apace.

As we reported in September Ms Greening has delayed the long-awaited fairer funding shake-up for 12 months to take stock of the situation.

Cllr Marc Bayliss, cabinet member for children and families, said: "This isn't the report I'd like to be proposing.

"Ideally I'd like to be here implementing fairer funding for Worcestershire schools and all those counties which have historically been under-funded, which are mainly shire counties.

"But with this funding formula we've sought to ensure stability in the system, while we await that fairer funding."

He called fairer funding "the promised land", and reminded fellow cabinet members how poorly Worcestershire has fared.

The basic per-pupil funding is £4,231 on average in Worcestershire compared to £5,218 in Birmingham, a startling £987 difference.

"We are 125th out of 152 local authority education areas in the country, so it's all to play for," he said.

Worcester News:

Cllr Marcus Hart suggested one of Ms Greening's motivations for wanting to delay it could be the potential impact on her own constituency in Putney, south London.

"We did think we had a breakthrough until we got the new secretary of state, and that decision to wait doesn't surprise me," he said.

"I don't suppose there will be a national funding uplift, it will be all about how the Government 'cuts the cake', so if Worcestershire is a winner, there will have to be a loser."

Former Education Secretary Nicky Morgan had pledged to reform school funding by 2017 to even out the years of disparity, but after the Brexit vote she was sacked in Theresa May's reshuffle.

Ms Greening then announced a 12-month pause, saying she wanted to take time to look at it properly before launching it from 2018.

Worcestershire's headteachers have reacted angrily to the wait, calling it "bonkers" and "bitterly disappointing".