Education Act 1944

PART I JOINT EDUCATION BOARDS.

1 Where it appears to the Minister that the establishment of a joint board as the local education authority for the areas of two or more councils to whom this Part of this Schedule applies would tend to diminish expense or to, increase efficiency or would otherwise be of public advantage, the Minister may by order constitute a joint board (in this Act referred to as a " joint education board "), consisting of members appointed by those councils, and direct that the board shall be the local education authority for the areas of those councils :

Provided that the Minister shall not make such an order except after a local inquiry, unless all the councils for the areas of which the board are to be the local education authority have consented to the making of the order.

2 A joint education board so constituted shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal and power to hold land for the purposes of their functions without licence in mortmain.

3 An order constituting a joint education board :—

(a) may, without prejudice to the provisions of section two hundred and ninety-three of the Local Government Act, 1933 (which authorises the application of provisions of that Act to joint boards) provide for regulating the appointment and term of office of members of the board, for regulating the meetings and proceedings of the board, and for determining the manner in which the expenses of the board are to be defrayed ;

(b) may contain such other provisions (including provision for the transfer of officers, property, and liabilities, and for the adjustment of accounts and apportionment of liabilities) as appear to the Minister to be expedient for enabling the board to exercise their functions;

(c) may provide for securing that where in consequence of the establishment of the board as the local education authority for the area of any council any person who was an officer of that council immediately before the date on which the board became the local education authority for the area thereof suffers direct pecuniary loss by reason of the determination of his appointment or the diminution of his emoluments, he shall, unless provision for his compensation for that loss is made by or under any other enactment for the time being in force, be entitled to receive compensation therefor from the board, and for securing that the provisions of subsections (2) and (3) of section one hundred and fifty of the Local Government Act, 1933, and of the Fourth Schedule to that Act shall have effect for the purposes of any claim for such compensation and for the purposes of the determination and payment of the compensation, subject to such modifications and adaptations as appear to the Minister to be necessary; and

(d) may, with the consent of the council of any county or county borough for the area for which the board is to be the local education authority, provide for the transfer to the board of any functions exercisable by that council under the Children and Young Persons Acts, 1933 and 1938, otherwise than as a local education authority.

4 An order constituting a joint education board shall be laid before Parliament as soon as may be after it is made.

5 This Part of this Schedule applies to the council of any county, to the council of any county borough, and to the council of any other borough of which the population was not less than half of the population of the county in which the borough is situated, according to the last census before the passing of this Act.