The Education Reform(Northern Ireland) Order 1989

Schemes for financing controlled and maintained schools

46.—(1) It shall be the duty of every board to prepare a scheme in accordance with this Part and submit it for the approval of the Department in accordance with Article 47.

(2) The scheme shall provide for—

(a) the determination in respect of each financial year of the board, for each school required to be covered by the scheme in that year, of the share to be appropriated for that school in that year of the part of the general schools budget of the board for that year which is available for allocation to individual schools under the scheme (referred to in this Part, in relation to such a school, as the school’s budget share);

(b) the delegation by the board of the management of a school’s budget share for any year to the Board of Governors of the school where such delegation is required or permitted by or under the scheme; and

(c) the making available by the board to the Board of Governors of the school of a sum of money to be spent at its discretion, where the management of the school’s budget share is not delegated to the Board of Governors.

(3) For the purposes of this Part, a school is required to be covered in any financial year by a scheme made under this Article by a board if either—

(a) immediately before the beginning of that year it is a controlled school (other than a special school or technical secondary school) under the management of that board or a maintained school (other than a special school) maintained by that board; or

(b) at any time during that year it becomes such a school (whether by virtue of being established as a new school of that description or by virtue of becoming a controlled or maintained school where it was not, immediately before it became so, a school of either description).

(4) For the purposes of this Part—

(a) references, in relation to any board, to the general schools budget of the board for any financial year, are references to the amount appropriated by the board for meeting expenditure in that year in respect of all schools required to be covered in that year by any scheme made under this Article by that board; and

(b) the part of the general schools budget of any such board for any financial year which is available for allocation to individual schools under a scheme under this Article (referred to in this Part, in relation to any such board, as the board’s aggregated budget for the year) is the amount remaining after deducting from the amount of the general schools budget of the board for that year the amount of any expenditure of the board in that year on heads or items of expenditure which in accordance with the scheme fall to be left out of account in determining the board’s aggregated budget for the year (referred to in this Part as excepted heads or items of expenditure).

(5) In relation to any scheme under this Article, any reference in paragraph (4) to an amount is a reference to an amount determined (and from time to time revised) in accordance with the scheme; and a scheme under this Article must provide for all amounts relevant to the determination of a school’s budget share under the scheme for any financial year to be determined initially before the beginning of that year.

(6) In this Part—

(a) references to a school in respect of which financial delegation is required for any financial year under a scheme under this Article are references to a school managed by a Board of Governors to which the board concerned is for the time being required by or under the scheme to delegate the management of the school’s budget share for that year (and the Board of Governors of such a school is said to have a right to a delegated budget for the year);

(b) references to a school which has a delegated budget are references to a school managed by a Board of Governors to which a board has for the time being delegated the management of the school’s budget share for any financial year in pursuance of such a scheme (whether that delegation is required by the scheme or not);

(c) references to a relevant school in relation to a scheme made or to be made by a board under this Article are references to a controlled school (other than a special school or technical secondary school) under the management of that board or a maintained school (other than a special school) maintained by that board.

(7) The Department may by order substitute for references in this Article and Articles 47 to 57 to a financial year references to such other period as may be specified in the order.