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2025.06.24
3.16 Deputy D.J. Warr of St. Helier South of the Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning regarding funding for the maintenance costs at Victoria College Preparatory School (OQ.143/2025):
Will the Minister state whether any funding gap exists between the allocated budget and the contracts negotiated by his department in relation to cleaning and ground costs for Victoria College and Victoria College Preparatory School and, if so, advise whether any additional funding has been allocated to bridge the gap?
Deputy R.J. Ward of St. Helier Central (The Minister for Education and Lifelong
Learning):
I mentioned earlier the funding figures, I will come back to it again. The Victoria College budget allocation is from the A.W.P.U., so they receive 47 per cent of the A.W.P.U. It does not make discreet provision for contract costs within the overall categories of premises and grounds. It points to areas where money should be spent. It is the school's responsibility to allocate their budget from all of their income streams to meet their commitments and priorities; that is the challenge that the headteacher has. I will also say that over 90 per cent of the budget that is given to them is on staffing and so the decisions around staffing, how many staff, what responsibility points, are all delegated to the headteacher. There is a decision to be made within the school as well in regards to these contracts and the cost themselves.
3.16.1 Deputy D.J. Warr :
Can the Minister confirm if the move to the S.F.F. (school funding formula) for the fee-paying schools will see an uplift to ensure that their fixed or semi-fixed costs are adequately supported and reflect the real costs for those schools and, if not, why not, as this cost discrepancy is already known by the department as they have negotiated the contracts?
Deputy R.J. Ward :
Is the Deputy referring to the funding formula, may I ask, the move to a funding formula? Deputy D.J. Warr :
Yes.
Deputy R.J. Ward :
Yes. The discussions on that are already ongoing. The funding formula will have an effect on what that will be, according to the intake of schools. I will say that analysis of 2025 budget allocations indicates that the Victoria College receive a total funding from the A.W.P.U. and school fees; that is for Victoria College 41 per cent higher than they would receive if they were fully funded by Government receiving the funding formula. The funding formula for our mainstream schools is very limited. At the moment if they were on the funding formula it must be understood that they would receive much higher funding than our schools. Subsequently, I think they have a budget which they could be looking at very carefully in terms of how they spend it.
The Deputy Bailiff :
We have 6 questions left and only 20 minutes for them to be responded to. I regret to say that
only the questioner will be able to ask questions and of course he or she will have a supplementary as well.