The Education Standards Fund (England) Regulations 2000

Citation, commencement and extent

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Education Standards Fund (England) Regulations 2000 and shall come into force on 1st April 2000.

(2) These Regulations apply only in relation to England.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations–

“the 1989 Act” means the Local Government and Housing Act 1989(1);

“the 1996 Act” means the Education Act 1996;

“the 1998 Act” means the School Standards and Framework Act 1998(2);

“advanced education” means full-time education for the purposes of–

(a)

a course in preparation for a degree, a diploma of higher education, a higher national diploma, a higher national diploma of the Business and Technician Education Council or the Scottish Vocational Education Council, or a teaching qualification; or

(b)

any other course which is of a standard above ordinary national diploma, a diploma of the Business and Technician Education Council or a national certificate of the Scottish Vocational Education Council, a general certificate of education (advanced level), a Scottish certificate of education (higher grade) or a Scottish certificate of Sixth Year Studies.

“advanced skills teacher” means a teacher who has been certified by an assessor appointed by the Secretary of State for Education and Employment as eligible for appointment to that post and who has been so appointed;

“approved expenditure” means any expenditure which is approved as provided in regulation 3 below;

“beacon school” means a maintained school participating in the Department for Education and Employment’s programme for beacon schools which requires schools to undertake responsibilities in relation to disseminating good practice in schools;

“city learning centre” means a centre established by a partnership of education authorities and schools in an area which is included in Excellence in Cities to develop, support and provide teaching and learning through information and communication technology;

“determine” means determine by notice in writing;

“DomEx project” means the project developed by a partnership of education authorities and other bodies which links city learning centres with the education centre based at the Millennium Dome, Greenwich, to develop, support and provide teaching and learning through information and communication technology;

“early excellence centre” means an institution for providing education and other related services for children under compulsory school age (whether or not it also provides such services for other persons) participating in the Department for Education and Employment’s pilot programme for early excellence centres;

“early years development plan” means a plan prepared by an education authority in accordance with section 120 of the 1998 Act;

“education authority” means a local education authority;

“education development plan” means a plan prepared by an education authority in accordance with section 6 of the 1998 Act;

“Excellence in Cities” means the programme of action by the Department for Education and Employment to raise education standards in selected urban areas;

“family literacy programmes” means programmes which enable parents to improve their own literacy skills while helping their children to read and write;

“family numeracy programmes” means programmes which enable parents to improve their own numeracy skills while helping their children with numeracy;

“financial year” means a period of 12 months beginning on 1st April;

“key skills qualification” means a qualification accredited as such by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority under section 24(2)(g) of the Education Act 1997(3);

“key stage 2” means the second key stage referred to in section 355(1)(b) of the 1996 Act;

“key stage 3” means the third key stage referred to in section 355(1)(c) of the 1996 Act;

“leading mathematics teacher” means an experienced mathematics teacher who is required to provide demonstration mathematics lessons;

“learning mentor” means a person appointed or engaged to work at one or more secondary schools included in Excellence in Cities to assist those pupils who need additional support to overcome barriers to learning both inside and outside school;

“learning support unit” means a unit in a secondary school included in Excellence in Cities which provides separate short-term teaching and support programmes for pupils who need intensive support;

“local authority lifelong learning development plan” means a plan prepared by an education authority setting out the steps it proposes to take to improve the learning opportunities for adults and widen participation in learning;

“mainstream school” means a maintained school other than a special school;

“maintained school” means a school maintained by an education authority;

“National Grid for Learning” means a system of inter-connecting networks and education services based on the Internet which is designed to support teaching, learning, training and administration in schools, the wider education service, and the community;

“non-maintained special school” means a special school which is not a maintained special school;

“non-statutory education action zone” means two or more schools which have obtained the approval of the Secretary of State for Education and Employment to their constituting collectively a non-statutory education action zone;

“nursery education” has the meaning given to it in section 117 of the 1998 Act;

“parent governor representative” means a person elected to a committee of an education authority or authorities in accordance with regulations 3 to 7 of the Education (Parent Governor Representatives) Regulations 1999(4);

“prescribed expenditure” means

(a)

expenditure by an education authority for or in connection with any of the purposes specified in Schedule 1 other than the purpose specified in paragraph 7(b); or

(b)

expenditure by an education authority which satisfies the conditions specified in paragraph (2) below for or in connection with the purpose specified in paragraph 7(b) of Schedule 1;

“relevant lender” has the meaning given to it in regulation 65(1) of the Local Authorities (Capital Finance) Regulations 1997(5);

“school day” has the meaning given to it in section 579(1) of the Education Act 1996;

“school development plan” means a plan prepared by a school which sets out its main goals, what action is necessary to achieve those goals, the resources required and how success will be measured;

“small school” means

(a)

a primary school other than a special school with no more than 200 registered pupils,

(b)

a secondary school other than a special school with no more than 600 registered pupils, or

(c)

a special school with no more than 75 registered pupils.

“special educational needs” has the meaning given to it in section 312 of the 1996 Act;

“special needs assistant” means an employee of an education authority or of the governing body of a school who is normally present in a classroom with a teacher and who assists the teacher in relation to children with special educational needs;

“special school” has the meaning given to it in section 337(1) of the 1996 Act;

“specialist school” means a maintained school which specialises in–

(a)

mathematics, science and technology;

(b)

modern foreign languages;

(c)

the fine arts, performing arts or the media arts; or

(d)

sport;

“standards fund grant” means a grant under these Regulations;

“study support centre” means a centre providing an out of school hours learning programme aimed at raising standards in literacy and numeracy;

“summer literacy school” means a scheme taking place during the summer holidays which aims to raise standards of literacy in pupils who are about to join secondary schools;

“summer numeracy school” means a scheme taking place during the summer holidays which aims to raise standards of numeracy in pupils who are about to join secondary schools;

“teacher” means a person who by virtue of regulations(6) relating to the employment of teachers from time to time in force under section 218 of the Education Reform Act 1988(7) is qualified to be employed as a teacher at a school of the kind described in subsection (12) of that section;

“teaching assistant” means an employee of an education authority or of the governing body of a school who is normally present in a classroom with a teacher and who assists the teacher; and

“youth and community worker” means a person employed or working in a voluntary capacity in connection with the provision of facilities of a kind mentioned in sections 2(3)(b) or 508 of the 1996 Act other than a person undertaking duties that are solely administrative, secretarial, clerical or manual.

(2) The conditions referred to in sub-paragraph (b) of the definition of “ prescribed expenditure” in paragraph (1) above are that on 1st April 2000 the education authority–

(a) has a credit ceiling, as determined under Part III of Schedule 3 to the 1989 Act which was nil or a negative amount; and

(b) had no money outstanding by way of borrowing other than –

(i) short-term borrowing (within the meaning of section 45(6) of the 1989 Act); or

(ii) borrowing undertaken before 24th August 1995, other than borrowing by the issue of stock on or after 15th December 1993 from a person who is not a relevant lender.

Expenditure in respect of which standards fund grants are payable

3.  Standards fund grants shall only be payable in respect of prescribed expenditure incurred or to be incurred in a financial year to the extent to which that expenditure is approved for that year by the Secretary of State for the purposes of these Regulations.

Standards fund grants in respect of payments to third parties

4.  Where–

(a) an education authority incurs expenditure in making payments, whether by way of maintenance, assistance or otherwise, to any other body or persons (including another education authority) who incur expenditure for or in connection with educational purposes; and

(b) that expenditure of the recipient of the payments or any part thereof would be prescribed expenditure if it were expenditure of the authority,

such payments shall to that extent be treated as prescribed expenditure for the purposes of these Regulations.

Rate of standards fund grant

5.—(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2) below, standards fund grants in respect of approved expenditure incurred on or after 1st April 2000 shall be payable at the rate of 50 per cent. of such expenditure in respect of items referred to in the paragraphs of Schedule 1 other than paragraph 45.

(2) Standards fund grants in respect of approved expenditure incurred on or after 1st April 2000 in respect of items referred to in the paragraphs of Schedule 1 listed in the left hand column of the table below shall be payable at the percentage rate of such expenditure specified in relation thereto in the right hand column of the table.

TABLE

Paragraph in Schedule 1	Rate (%)
2a	100
5	100
6a	100
7	100
9	100
11(f)	100
13	100
17	58
20	100
21	100
22	100
23	100
24	100
25	50
26	75
27a	100
29	100
30	100
31	100
32	90
34	100
35	60
38	75
39	100
40	100
41	100
42	75
43	100
44	100
46	100

(3) Standards fund grant in respect of approved expenditure incurred on or after 1st April 2000 in respect of items referred to in paragraph 45 of Schedule 1 shall be payable, in relation to the education authorities listed in the left hand column of the table in Schedule 2, at the percentage rate of such expenditure specified in the right hand column of the table.

Conditions for payment of standards fund grant

6.—(1) No payment of standards fund grant shall be made except in response to an application from an education authority to the Secretary of State.

(2) An education authority shall, when requested by the Secretary of State, inform him of the approved expenditure, in respect of which an application for grant has been made which has been or which it is estimated will be incurred by the education authority during the course of the financial year.

(3) Where an application relating to approved expenditure to be incurred during the period commencing on 1st January in any financial year is submitted under paragraph (1) above, the Secretary of State may make a single payment of standards fund grant of such amount as he may determine at such time as he considers appropriate in respect of such expenditure, but no further payment of standards fund grant shall be made in respect of that expenditure until a statement has been submitted in accordance with paragraph (4)(a) below.

(4) Each education authority that has received or seeks to receive a payment of standards fund grant in respect of expenditure incurred during any financial year shall, before 1st October in the following financial year or as soon as practicable after that date–

(a) submit to the Secretary of State a statement which shall specify the approved expenditure in respect of which standards fund grant has been or is being applied for which has been incurred by the education authority during that year; and

(b) secure the submission to the Secretary of State of a certificate signed by the auditor appointed by the Audit Commission for Local Authorities and the National Health Service in England and Wales to audit the accounts of the authority or any auditor qualified for such appointment by virtue of sections 5, 6 and 7 of the Audit Commission Act 1998(8) certifying that in his opinion the particulars stated in the statement submitted by the authority pursuant to this paragraph are fairly stated and that the expenditure incurred was approved for the purposes of section 484 or, in the case of expenditure in respect of the items referred to in paragraph 26 of the Schedule, section 488 of the 1996 Act.

(5) Any under-payment or over-payment of standards fund grant which remains outstanding following receipt of the auditor’s certificate referred to in paragraph (4)(b) above shall, without prejudice to the recovery of any over-payment from any subsequent payment of standards fund grant to the education authority, be adjusted by payment between the authority and the Secretary of State.

7.  Where at the time of approving expenditure for the purposes of these Regulations, the Secretary of State requests information in respect of any purpose listed in Schedule 1, payment of standards fund grant in respect of that purpose shall be conditional on that information being included in the education authority’s application for payment of grant.

8.—(1) The Secretary of State may from time to time determine further conditions on the fulfilment of which the making of any payment under these Regulations shall be dependent.

(2) Where conditions have been determined under this regulation no standards fund grant shall be payable unless such conditions have either been fulfilled or been withdrawn under paragraph (3) below.

(3) The Secretary of State may determine to withdraw or, after consulting the education authority, vary conditions determined under this regulation.

Requirements to be complied with

9.  Any education authority to whom a payment of standards fund grant has been made shall, if so required by the Secretary of State, furnish him with such further information as may be required to enable him to verify that any grant paid has been properly paid under these Regulations.

10.—(1) Any education authority to whom a payment of standards fund grant has been made shall comply with such requirements as may be determined by the Secretary of State in the case in question.

(2) Requirements determined under this regulation may in particular include requirements as to–

(a) the repayment of standards fund grant;

(b) the payment to the Secretary of State of other sums related to the value of assets acquired, provided or improved–

(i) with the aid of standards fund grant; or

(ii) by any other body or persons referred to in regulation 4(a) above with the aid of payments made by the authority in respect of which standards fund grant has been paid; or

(c) the payment of interest on sums due to the Secretary of State.

11.—(1) The Secretary of State may require any education authority to whom a payment of standards fund grant in respect of the items specified in paragraphs 1, 3 to 7, 10 to 13, 16 to 19, 24 to 26, 30, 32 to 36, and 38 to 42 of Schedule 1 is made to delegate decisions about the spending of–

(a) such grant, and

(b) the amount allocated by the authority to meet the prescribed expenditure approved in accordance with regulation 3,

to the governing body of a maintained school.

(2) The Secretary of State may determine to withdraw or, after consulting the education authority, vary requirements determined in pursuance of this regulation.

Revocation, amendment and transitional provisions

12.—(1) The following Regulations are hereby revoked, namely–

(a) The Education (Education Standards Etc. Grants) (England) Regulations 1999(9)

(b) The Education (Education Standards Etc. Grants) (England) Regulations 1999 (Amendment) Regulations 1999(10);

(c) The Education (Education Standards Etc. Grants) (England) Regulations 1999 (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 1999(11).

(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), Regulations made under section 484 of the 1996 Act(12) shall continue to apply in relation to financial years beginning before 1st April 2000 for the purpose of paying grant in respect of expenditure incurred in those financial years and any condition or requirement determined by or in accordance with any of those Regulations shall continue to apply.

Estelle Morris

Minister of State,

Department for Education and Employment

8th March 2000