I have been acutely aware of the financial pressure our schools have been under in recent times; with a near impossible struggle to balance the budgets as costs continue to rise. As a result, many local schools have had to take some extremely difficult decisions in avoiding contemplating cuts to frontline teaching staff which is clearly unacceptable. 

Earlier this year, I wrote to all Head teachers in the constituency to ask for their feedback on the then proposed school funding formula before raising it all with Ministers and Policy Officials in the Department for Education. I also made representations to the Prime Minister of the need for a better schools funding formula and more funding for frontline staff and school classrooms. In particular, my Manifesto submission for a New Deal for Schools and Skills (as Chair of the Prime Ministers’ Policy Board) suggested we put education at the heart of the Conservative Programme. 

I have therefore welcomed Justine Greening’s recent announcement of much needed additional funding for schools. It shows that this Government is truly listening to the message being delivered.

We all understood that, following the crash of 2008 and the perilous state of the public finances, the Government in 2010 had to take some very difficult decisions. But, in recent months it has become clear to me that, in education, “belt tightening” was becoming (in real terms) cuts to essential frontline classroom teaching.

It’s clear to me that whilst there was initial support in 2010 for this vital belt tightening, we now need a different approach. This is not to say we should abandon austerity, but we now need to think more innovatively and creatively about how best to reward and incentivise locally-led leadership. I believe we need a new way forward based on incentives and research rather than blanket ‘caps and cuts’.

As you may have seen from the media coverage, my calls for fresh thinking and new approaches have been widely reported (and picked up and echoed by other Government MP’s).  

To continue the momentum on this fresh thinking I am organising this summer a group of MPs who feel the same way, and setting up here in Mid Norfolk a new non-party political 'Constituency Cabinet' of local public service leaders on the front line to help advise me on the local complexities of public spending and service reform.

I will be asking one of our local head teachers here in Mid Norfolk to speak for teaching on my local “Cabinet”.