The Financing of Maintained Schools (England) Regulations 2003

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

A local education authority’s individual schools budget is to be divided between the schools which they maintain in the form of budget shares for each school. These Regulations provide the basis on which, for the financial year beginning 1 April 2003, a local education authority may determine the amount from their individual schools budget to be allocated to each school as its budget share for that financial year.

These Regulations require a local education authority to deal in a scheme prepared by them with specified matters connected with the financing of schools which they maintain.

This year, the provisions which specify the nature of the planned expenditure which an authority may deduct from their schools budget in order to arrive at their individual schools budget for the financial year are contained elsewhere in the LEA Budget, Schools Budget and Individual Schools Budget (England) Regulations 2002. Other than this, the most significant changes from the Financing of Maintained Schools (England) Regulations 2002 (“the 2002 Regulations”) are as follows:

Under the 2002 Regulations, the amount allocated per pupil in an authority’s formula was subject to an annual increase of 2.5%. This no longer applies.

In determining pupil numbers for the purpose of allocating budget shares, under Regulation 8(5)(h) (pupil numbers), an authority may now choose to weight numbers according to whether a pupil is attending a middle school.

A new regulation (Regulation 12) has been inserted to allow authorities to take into account in their formula the requirement on schools to limit infant class sizes.

The requirement of a factor based on social deprivation in regulation 14(2) (additional factors or criteria) has been amended so that it applies only where social deprivation is not a criterion used elsewhere in the authority’s formula.

Under regulation 15(4) (sixth form funding), the maximum deduction which an authority can make from the sixth form allocation by the Learning and Skills Council in determining a school’s budget share has been reduced from two-thirds to one-third of any amount above the Real Terms Guarantee for that school.

In Regulation 20(2) (transitional funding), there has been inserted, by reference to the amount of transitional funding receivable in the financial year 2002/3, a cap on the amount which a school may receive in 2003/4.

The Part of the Regulations relating to the allocation of School Standards Grant has been omitted, as this grant is no longer included in schools' budget shares.

Under Regulation 21(2) (re-determination of budget shares), where a re-determination of a school’s budget share as a result of a change in the number of registered pupils would result in an increase in that school’s budget share, the authority is obliged to make such a re-determination (unless is has made the original calculation using a method specified in Regulation 21(2)).

In Schedule 1 (additional factors or criteria which may be taken into account in an authority’s formula), paragraphs have been inserted authorising factors based on the incidence of Newly Qualified Teachers; incidence of ethnic minority pupils with below average levels of academic achievement; incidence of nursery classes and places for pupils with special educational needs; and prior attainment of pupils.