The Financing of Maintained Schools (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2002

Amendment of Regulations

2.—(1) The Financing of Maintained Schools Regulations 1999(1) are amended as follows.

(2) In regulation 3, omit paragraph (a) and after paragraph (d), insert—

“(dd)where expenditure on the acquisition or maintenance of a particular capital asset would fall within paragraph (d) if incurred by a local education authority directly, any expenditure incurred by the authority under—

(i)any agreement between any person and the authority which includes provision for the supply or maintenance of such an asset by that person; or

(ii)any borrowing arrangement (including any arrangement, whether by way of lease or otherwise, whose principal purpose is to raise money in respect of such an asset),

insofar as such expenditure is attributable to the supply or maintenance of that asset or to the repayment of principal, interest or other charges on monies lent to the authority in respect of the acquisition or maintenance of it.

• In this paragraph, “maintenance” means work of any description the expenditure for which, had it been incurred by the authority directly, would have fallen within paragraph (d).”.

(3) In regulation 7, insert before “A local education authority”, “(1) Subject to paragraph (2),” and insert at the end of that regulation—

“(2) A local education authority need not allocate all of their individual schools budget in accordance with this Part in the form of budget shares at the beginning of the financial year, and may instead retain an amount for the purpose of redeterminations or the correction of errors but such amount must be used for that purpose or distributed to schools as required by regulation 19(3A) before the end of the financial year.”.

(4) In regulation 19, in paragraph (1) for “to take account of”, substitute “, if they so wish, to take account wholly or partly of”, and after paragraph (3) of that regulation insert—

“(3A) Where a local education authority propose to retain part of their individual schools budget pursuant to regulation 7(2) for the purpose of redeterminations or the correction of errors they shall include factors or criteria in their formula which require them to redetermine schools' budget shares before the end of the financial year so as to distribute to schools the unallocated balance of any such retained amount on the basis of pupil numbers in accordance with regulation 11(1) or (5).”.

(5) In regulation 20, for 'B' of the formula specified in paragraph (2), substitute—

“B is the number of complete weeks remaining in the financial year calculated from the relevant date:

• EXCEPT that where the permanent exclusion takes effect on or after 1st April in a school year at the end of which pupils of the same age or age group as the pupil in question normally leave that school prior to being admitted to another school with a different pupil age range, B is the number of complete weeks remaining in that school year calculated from the relevant date.”.

(6) In regulation 22, omit “, less the aggregate of the sum of the budget shares of special schools and any transitional funding determined under regulation 18,”, and insert at the end—

“(2) For the purposes of this regulation, the budget shares of special schools and any part of the individual schools budget retained pursuant to regulation 7(2) for the purpose of redeterminations or the correction of errors shall be excluded from the local education authority’s individual schools budget.”.

(7) After regulation 23 insert—

“Correction of errors

23A.  A local education authority may at any time during the financial year redetermine a school’s budget share for that financial year in order to correct an error in a determination or redetermination under these Regulations, whether arising from a mistake as to the number of registered pupils at the school or otherwise.”.

(8) In paragraph 1 of Schedule 2, after “used” insert “except where the grant is made to the authority under a condition requiring it to be treated as part of the authority’s individual schools budget”.

(9) After paragraph 2 of that Schedule insert—

“Nursery schools

2A.  Expenditure in connection with nursery schools.”.

(10) In paragraph 14 of that Schedule, insert after “1989”, “and other functions relating to child protection”.

(11) For paragraph 19 of that Schedule substitute—

“19.  Expenditure on the provision of premises and facilities for sporting activities and outdoor activities (including premises and facilities provided on the site of a school for the benefit of the community at large).”.

(12) In paragraph 28 of that Schedule after sub-paragraph (b), insert—

“(c)functions of the authority under Part 1 of the Local Government Act 1999(2) (Best Value) and also the provision of advice to assist governing bodies in procuring goods and services with a view to securing continuous improvement in the way the functions of those governing bodies are exercised, having regard to a combination of economy, efficiency and effectiveness;”.

(13) For paragraph 28(p) of that Schedule substitute—

“(p)compliance with the authority’s duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974(3) and the relevant statutory provisions as defined in section 53(1) of that Act insofar as compliance cannot reasonably be achieved through functions delegated to the governing bodies of the schools; but including expenditure incurred by the authority in monitoring the performance of such functions by governing bodies and where necessary the giving of advice to them;”.

(14) For paragraph 33 of that Schedule, substitute—

“33.  Expenditure without which the education of pupils at a school would be seriously prejudiced and which because of either—

(a)its size and unexpectedness; or

(b)its size and unavoidability,

it would not be reasonable to expect the governing body to meet from the school’s budget share.”.

(15) For paragraph 34 of that Schedule, substitute—

“34.  Expenditure on increases to a school’s budget share to which the school is entitled by virtue of the authority’s formula under regulation 10 or arrangements under regulation 23 and expenditure on the correction of errors.”.

(16) At the end of the unnumbered paragraph at the beginning of Schedule 3 insert—

“Where in a financial year a local education authority take factors or criteria into account in their formula which are additional to or different from factors or criteria taken into account in the previous financial year, they may make such transitional provision as they consider reasonable.”.

(17) After paragraph 29 of Schedule 3, insert—

“29A.  Payroll administration costs: the funding must be based on the number of staff at the school, unless factors permitted elsewhere in these Regulations are used.”.