Surrey's education chiefs have appealed to the government's schools minister for help, claiming that standards in schools are suffering under the weight of bureaucracy.

Education officials from Surrey County Council have warned that standards in Local Education Authorities (LEAs) and schools across the south east are being held back by piles of administrative paperwork and funding applications.

In a meeting with Stephen Timms MP, the county council's executive member for children and young people, Cllr Kay Hammond, joined the county's education director, Dr Paul Gray, in appealing to the government to increase the money Surrey schools receive and to allow the LEA to decide how it can best serve the community.

Warning that proposals for a new funding system could result in Surrey having fewer resources to offer children, Cllr Hammond said: "We already receive less money per pupil than any other LEAs around the country and there are fears that the government might change the area cost adjustment, which go some way to recognising the cost of living in the south east."

Arguing that government allocated funding for specific sectors of school education could cripple efforts to act on particular problems in Surrey districts, such as the effect of housing prices on recruiting and retaining teachers, she asked for LEAs to be given the same freedom to innovate as some schools will have under the government's Education Bill proposals.

The council also wants a reorganisation of the rules governing its 59-year-old school transport policy, which is governed by the Bill's predecessor, the Education Act of 1944.

Cllr Hammond added: "One of our ideas is to replace 17 of the statutory planning documents currently required by the DfES, with an all-in-one, five-year plan for raising performance in schools.

"We also want to use education funding from the government in ways that would best suit local needs, rather than continue to have it divided into pots that can be spent only on specific activities."

Following the meeting, Dr Gray said he was encouraged by Mr Timms' responses.

He said: "He recognised that we were not there to be negative, but rather to offer realistic alternatives to the current national policies."

With Surrey getting only half the amount of funding per pupil than other neighbouring authorities, such as Windsor & Maidenhead, Hampshire, Kent, Buckinghamshire, Wokingham and a quarter of London boroughs like Kingston, Croydon and Sutton, Cllr Hammond has urged MPs to lobby for an urgent review of the system.