EDUCATION bosses in Worcestershire are failing to pass on desperately-needed cash to the county's schools, the Government has claimed.

The Department of Education insisted that every local authority in the country must pass on at least 87 per cent of its Government grant direct to youngsters.

But Worcestershire County Council - despite complaining it does not receive enough cash to spend on local youngsters - got only 86.6 per cent of money through.

At the same time, County Hall is spending £46 per pupil on administration - £3 more per youngster than the average for similar councils.

It has now been "named and shamed" on a list of 33 authorities which are failing to hit the mark.

City MP Mike Foster, a Parliamentary aide in the education department, said the council had to "justify to the parents and the schools why it has kept this cash back.

"It must look particularly closely at why it is spending more than average on management costs," he said.

"The money it gets should be getting through to schools - not going on bureaucracy."

An average of £2,515 per pupil is getting through to schools in Worcestershire - which is below the average for upper-tier authorities of £2,584.

"The Government has made huge resources available for education and it is vital that these funds get through to schools where they can make a difference in raising standards," said Schools Minister David Miliband.

In future, Education Ministers will have the power to force councils to hand over a set percentage of the total budget.

At present, it can only name and shame those who have failed.

School forums will also be established to scrutinise the way councils handle their budgets.

Coun June Longmuir, Worcestershire County Council's Cabinet member for Education, said it had offered to pass on more money to its schools - but they were not willing to accept it.

She said they had pointed out to the Government that much of their budget was spent on transport because of the rural nature of the area.

"We have a lot of small schools in Worcestershire which don't want the extra paperwork that more delegation would involve," she said.

Cledwyn-Davies, chairman of the Worcestershire Association of Head Teachers, said schools were generally happy with the delegated powers they had been given, but said problems were caused by the lack of funding from the Government.'