THE Government should provide Worcestershire's schools with more funding rather than "naming and shaming" its education authority, according to one of the county's head teachers.

Cledwyn-Davies, chairman of the Worcestershire Association of Head Teachers, also attacked city MP Mike Foster's "outrageous" criticism of the authority.

He spoke out after Worcestershire County Council failed to pass on enough of its Government grant directly to its schools.

The council is on a list of 33 authorities that have not reached the 87 per cent target.

But Mr Cledwyn-Davies said the authority had done well to get anywhere near the target.

He said the real problem was the fact that the Government was under-funding Worcestershire schools by £10m a year.

He accused it of failing to listen to the schools, the majority of which did not want extra delegated funds.

"It is disingenuous of the Government to criticise the authority," he said. "It is not taking into account the fact that most schools can't manage extra delegation.

"Large secondary schools can probably manage it, but there are only 10 or 15 of these. There are 302 schools in Worcestershire.

"The overwhelming majority of my colleagues don't want more delegation."

He said delegation was not cost effective, and would lead to more paperwork for teachers who already had too much to do.

Mr Foster said the council had to justify retaining money and should spend less on bureaucracy.

But Mr Cledwyn-Davies denied that the cash was being wasted on administration.

"This is a lean, mean authority," he said. "If Mike Foster had spoken to headteachers, we would have told him that the authority services are so stripped to the bone that we can't always get them when we need them.

"Our children are under-funded by in excess of £300. The money that isn't being delegated is peanuts in comparison. Mike Foster's statement is outrageous.

"The ball is in the Government's court now. It needs to concentrate on the big issue of funding rather than complaining about a few pounds."