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STATES OF JERSEY
PROPOSED GOVERNMENT PLAN 2022 - 2025 (P.90/2021) :ELEVENTH AMENDMENT (P.90/2021 AMD.(11)) – COMMENTS
SCHOOL FUNDING
Presented to the States on 9th December 2021 by the Council of Ministers
STATES GREFFE
2021 P.90 Amd.(11) Com.
COMMENTS
The Minister for Children and Education rejects this amendment on the grounds that:
• there is no evidence to support the amount requested
• the amount proposed is variable
• the amount proposed may prove to be unlimited, and
• that the consequences of making such an allocation are to limit the amount of General Reserve (Covid) which is available to the Government to react to the impact of Covid or other unforeseen events which may occur over the period of the Plan.
The Minister does not accept the concept of headroom' in budgeting for schools and colleges, and he is actively reviewing the adequacy and distribution of the relevant budgets under the Education Reform Programme.
The Jersey delivery model is different from that of its most comparable model, the funding of schools in England. Proportionately fewer costs are borne by schools' delegated budgets and more by central functions of Children, Young People, Education and Skills, or by other Departments of Government. The proposal for 15% as a proportion of total budget is not a recognised principle in the English schools' funding formula and would not reflect the different balance of central and delegated responsibilities in the Jersey system.
Examples are IT infrastructure and support which is provided by Modernisation and Digital or a significant proportion of spending on buildings maintenance which is provided by the Infrastructure Department.
Schools are allocated a total budget based on numbers of pupils and classes, weighted by age, and supplemented by additional budgets for deprivation (the Jersey Pupil Premium) and assessed need for those requiring specific support. Head Teachers have delegated accountability to allocate their base budgets between their staff commitments and their other non-pay demands, in general prioritising spending on staff and further limiting non-staff spending.
The Independent Schools Funding Review recognised that the formula required modernising to reflect changes in best practice. It recommended additional resources be allocated to address historical funding pressures, including non-pay pressures, and targeted growth for specific functions which were clearly funded below benchmarked levels. It also recommended that further work be undertaken in a number of policy areas, noting that this may result in identifying additional resource requirements in future years.
The Assembly approved growth funding for these issues in Government Plan 2021 to 2024 as in table 1 overleaf. The £5.5 million deficit funding equated to the overspends in schools and school direct support budgets in 2020.
The Department has set in train the Education Reform Programme to deliver the recommendations of the Independent Schools Funding Review and its wider service re-
design objectives. This work is underway, with the re-design of the Schools' Funding Formula project commencing in April with the aim of improving the transparency and fairness of the distribution of direct schools' funding and identifying the potential costs of future policy changes.
Table 1 – Investment agreed for the Education Reform Programme in Government Plan 2021 to 2024
In addition, Members are reminded of appendices 3 and 4 to the draft Government Plan, whereby the previously agreed growth (under putting children first) of approximately £35 million per annum is demonstrated in greater detail. As well as including the figures above, this investment also includes an additional amount of approximately £10 million per annum of growth for investment into higher education and improving overall educational outcomes.
Appendix 3 identifies new growth proposed for 2022 onwards (approximately £1 million extra each year), and a further sum is held in central reserves for additional demographic pressures if required.
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P.90/2021 Amd.(11) Com.
Accordingly, the Minister does not consider that further growth of £8.5 million per year is required at this time.
Financial Implications
The amendment as proposed creates an unlimited provision with the General Reserve (Covid), estimated at £8.5 million in 2022, reducing the Government's ability to react to unforeseen events, including the impact of Covid.
In total it increases expenditure by £25.5 million over the period of the Plan. If accepted this amendment will result in lower surpluses in 2023-2025 years of the plan, preventing them being available to be applied to reduce borrowing for Covid.
Statement under Standing Order 37A [Presentation of comment relating to a proposition]:
These comments were submitted to the States Greffe after the noon deadline as set out in Standing Order 37A due to time constraints from the States Meeting being moved forward to Monday 13th December, which in turn affected the final deadline for Comments, and the requirement to undertake final due diligence and review processes.