COUNCIL bosses are calling on the Government to delay a planned £7 million cut to Essex education services amid concerns significant improvements made by the county's schools could be undone.

Under the current proposals, education authority Essex County Council would see its Education Services Grant - which funds school improvements, education welfare services and national curriculum assessment - drop from £10.6million a year to £3million a year from August 2017.

The plans were initially announced when the Government expected more schools to become academies, which would reduce the responsibilities an costs of local authorities.

However, in Essex two-thirds of schools are yet to become academies, a situation which has promoted the call.

The authority says the cuts could damage the "remarkable progress" made by the county's schools.

In the county's annual Ofsted report, inspectors say 95 per cent of Essex secondary pupils now attend schools rated as good or outstanding - the highest in the East of England and above the national average of 78 per cent.

At primary level, 91 per cent of the county’s pupils attend a school rated as good or better - slightly above the 90 per cent national average.

Essex education bosses have been written to Education Secretary Justine Greening and Chancellor Philip Hammond, outlining their concerns.

Ray Gooding, Essex county councillor responsible for education, said: "We are committed to ensuring all pupils in Essex receive the best possible education and are fully supportive of the Government’s aspiration for ‘Educational Excellence Everywhere’. However we have serious concerns about the impact and timing of this reduction in funding.

"While we welcome last week’s announcement that £50million of new money will be made available to local authorities in recognition of their responsibilities over maintained schools, when compared to the £600million reduction to the Education Services Grant nationally, this is still a significantly reduced pot of funding."

He added: "We take a very proactive approach to raising educational standards in Essex.

"It is vitally important that schools continue to be able to access the support and challenge needed to continuously improve, and we are currently developing a school-led improvement model.

"We are calling for the Government to think again about the timing of the reduction in funding until more schools have been converted into academies and new improvement models have been fully implemented."