EDUCATION chiefs say Kent will not be among the councils "named and shamed" by the Government for holding back money from schools.

Education Secretary Charles Clark is due to announce this week a list of local education authorities which he claims have kept millions of pounds from their schools.

Reports suggest the list of those which will be identified are dominated by Tory LEAs in the South.

But Conservative county council leader Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart said he expected Kent to be given a clean bill of health.

"We have gone though our books as instructed and are confident that we have "passported" all the money we should have to our schools," he said.

The Government ordered councils to open their books in the continuing row over schools' budgets.

Many education authorities, including Kent, have complained they have been shortchanged because of changes to the way the Government allocated grants for education spending.

Teaching unions in Kent warned last week that a growing number of schools were contemplating making staff redundant.

Although Kent County Council was instructed to increase education spending by 6.5per cent, Government funding meant it had only a 3.2 per cent increase in cash.

The shortfall was covered by a 12.5 increase in the council tax.