Plans to plug a £1.6m funding gap for education services by setting up a partnership scheme which schools eventually buy into have been passed by the council.

The council is setting aside £550,000 from next year’s financial plan to combat the loss of the education services grant which has been scrapped by the Government.

The grant was paid to councils to carry out duties such as checks on staff.

A new plan to introduce a partnership with schools and academies which would initially be paid for by the council is hoped to further ease the pressure that the loss of the grant will bring.

Schools, including academies, will eventually have to pay to join the partnership.

According to a report submitted to councillors the partnership would be responsible for identifying key priority areas and be held to account for the achievement of agreed outcomes.

An initial £100,000 a year would be pumped into the first two years of a new partnership once a consultation is held later this year.

Councillor Stef Borella, Bexley shadow education spokesperson, said: “It is vital that Bexley Council maintains a strong relationship with the boroughs schools.

“There are significant risks going forward that these plans will not allow the council to perform it statutory role effectively.

“Bexley school’s budgets have already been squeezed as far as possible. Without real investment, there will be significant pressure on teacher and support staff levels, reduced resources for children with special educational needs and reductions to the school curriculum offering.

“There is already a demand for school places and class sizes will only increase without the right level of investment”.

Speaking at the cabinet meeting on Tuesday night Cllr John Fuller, cabinet member for education, said: “The school’s look to us. Some academies are very good and they are able to stand on their own two feet but we still have a responsibility for some issues that arise in the school system.

“Yes there is a financial implications but we have worked hard to look at these cases and now we are able to say this is something we have to find the money for, this is a pressure that has come on to us.”

News Shopper reported earlier this year that the council needed to find an extra £1m a year for SEN budgets to keep up with the growth in the number of children who need extra support.