Teachers are wasting an "astonishing" amount of their time on a complicated and bureaucratic system of funding schools, according to local government leaders.

The Local Government Association (LGA) says that money from the government's Standards Fund now makes up almost 10% of local authority education spending, but that getting cash from the fund involves lengthy form-filling.

The LGA's education finance chairman, Councillor Dave Wilcox, is calling for the fund to be scrapped, and relaunched with a more simple structure.

Head teachers were spending up to 16 hours working on applications for projects which may cost as little as �500, he said.

Currently, they had to apply for money from 38 different "pots", depending on the project they wanted to fund.

Funds were allocated to specifically-defined projects, and had to be spent within a year, limiting flexibility.

Alternative system

Cllr Wilcox said: "If the government is really serious about cutting red tape for schools then it should slash the number of hoops head teachers have to go through to secure Standards Fund money."

The LGA had developed a model which would cut bureaucracy, while allowing schools and the government to meet their targets.

It is proposing a revamped fund which would distribute money every three years, instead of annually.

Schools would put together detailed plans for proposed spending over the three-year period, which would be reviewed annually by local education authorities.

Cllr Wilcox said: "It would allow schools to manage their budgets and set their own priorities at a local level rather than being dictated to by London."