Photocopying costs

WQ.315/2021

WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR CHILDREN AND EDUCATION BY DEPUTY M.R. HIGGINS OF ST. HELIER

QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 21st JUNE 2021

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 28th JUNE 2021

Question

Further to Written Question 282/2021, will the Minister state –

1. the costs per copy of all photocopying in each school for each year between 2016 and 2020;
2. the number of copies produced by each school for each year between 2016 and 2020;
3. the reasons behind the reduction in photocopying expenditure for D'Hautrée House School (Special Needs) from £2,115 in 2019 to £3 in 2020 and the impact, if any, of this reduction in copying on the provision for the children concerned; and
4. how the deficits incurred by the secondary schools between 2016 and 2020 have been financed, and what measures, if any, are being taken to ensure that they have sufficient funds to avoid similar deficits occurring in the future?

Answer

1. As previously advised in the response to question WQ.199/2019 the cost per copy is commercially confidential  information  and  will  not  be  released.  This  protects  the  supplier's  confidential information and the governments commercial position whilst the procurement strategy for printing is developed.
2. The number of copies printed by each school are included in Table 1. It should be noted that this includes an aggregate of all size paper types, mono and colour copies that have been printed from 12 different types of device (e.g. desktop to multi-functional device), which each have a differing costs per copy. Any attempt to determine a cost per copy by comparing the expenditure released in WQ.282/2021 will not be successful, as the result will be inaccurate.
3. Due to how managed print devices are recorded in the monitoring software the previous answer to WQ 282/2021 stated:

2016  2017  2018  2019  2020 D'Hautree House School (Special Needs)   £3,702  £2,326  £1,779  £2,115  £3 La Sente KS 2-3  £132  £1,431

In reality, the figures for D'Hautree House and La Sente KS 2-3 all relate to the same provision so should be totalled as below:

2016  2017  2018  2019  2020 La Sente  £3,702  £2,326  £1,779  £2,247  £1,434

The reduction in total costs for La Sente from £2,247 in 2019 to £1,434 in 2020 is in line with many other schools who have also experienced a significant reduction due to the pandemic. There has been no impact on the provision for the children at La Sente.

4. Overspends and underspends offset each other across all services provided by CYPES. The net deficit has required additional funding from outside the Department's budget.

From 2016 to 2019 net departmental underspends were returned to Central Reserves and CYPES overspends were addressed from Central Reserves. Please see as an example the year end report from 2019 approved via Ministerial Decision MD-TR20-011.

In 2020, the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic made it difficult to mobilise to the growth programme agreed in Government Plan 2020 to 2023. Underspends on growth met the majority of the spending pressures, supplemented by an additional allocation of £1.1m from the covid emergency funds to address the additional operational spending on covid measures.

Measures taken to ensure that secondary schools have sufficient funds to avoid similar deficits occurring in the future include:

Additional funding of £7.9 million was made available in Government Plan 2021to address the recommendations of the Independent School Funding Review including funding the historical underlying deficit up to the end of 2020.

An Education Reform Project is now in train to review the fair distribution of these funds in line with the objectives of the review and to understand the demand driven future costs of the service as the numbers of pupils in secondary schools continue to rise and the numbers of children with special needs across all age groups continue to increase.

The Education Reform Project includes a workstream on Inclusion which is well advanced. This will result in a better understanding of the future budgets required to sustain a consistent and comprehensive education to all ages and needs of children. The recommendations will be pursued through the Government Plan process as well as through re-calibrating existing resources to maximum effect.

Every effort is being made to operate within agreed budgets in-year. In addition to the regular monthly discussions and reviews, a project is in train with the 10 most overspending schools to explore available actions to remain within budget and agree their plans to returning to a balanced position with the Director of Education.

Table 1