A PLAN to ask Hampshire County Council to help run Oxfordshire schools has been abandoned.

Education authority Oxfordshire County Council asked officers to see whether it could save money by asking Hampshire to run its “back office” administration.

The two councils already have an agreement where Hampshire runs some back office services for Oxfordshire.

But after investigating the proposed educational sharing, officers concluded there was no clear financial benefit to be gained.

Its cabinet agreed the move yesterday.

They also pointed out a number of policy differences between the authorities which could make joint management difficult, including those children in care.

The council’s director for children’s services, Jim Leivers, concluded: “It is clear also that a merger could take some time to become efficient and effective.

“Officers have concluded, with regret, that benefits will not be realised to a sufficient degree to be advantageous to either the council or the schools and pupils for which and for whom it provides.

“This view has been confirmed and acknowledged in an exchange of letters between the director for children, education and families and the director for children’s services in Hampshire.”

 

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