The Education (Grant-maintained and Grant-maintained Special Schools) (Finance) (Wales) Regulations 1996

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations, which apply only to grant-maintained schools and grant-maintained special schools situated in Wales, replace with modifications the Education (Grant-Maintained Schools) (Finance) (Wales) Regulations 1995, which are revoked. Unlike the earlier Regulations, the present Regulations extend to newly established grant-maintained schools and to grant-maintained special schools, as well as to former county and voluntary schools which have acquired grant-maintained status. Other changes are outlined below.

Part II of the Regulations provides for the determination and redetermination of the amount of maintenance grant to be paid to governing bodies of grant-maintained schools and grant-maintained special schools on a similar basis to that provided for under Part II of the 1995 Regulations, save that—

(1) where annual maintenance grant is determined under regulation 5 by LMS replication, there is now a separate comparator which applies to grant-maintained special schools; namely, a comparable maintained special school as defined in paragraph (6)(b) of that regulation;

(2) regulations 5, 6 and 13 incorporate changes to take account of Local Government Reorganisation in Wales under which the relevant authority from 1st April 1996 will be one of the new unitary authorities established by the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994;

(3) there are some changes in the provisions for determining annual maintenance grant by reference to the relevant authority’s expenditure in the preceding financial year, in particular changes in the heads or items of expenditure which are not to be included for the purpose of determining relevant expenditure (regulations 12 to 14 and Schedule 2); and

(4) regulation 16(2) deals with the apportionment of amounts determined under regulation 4 in respect of new grant-maintained schools which become grant-maintained on a date other than 1st April in the financial year in which the determination is being made.

Part III of the Regulations provides for the payment of capital and special purpose grants on the same basis as that provided for under Part III of the 1995 Regulations.

Part IV provides for the recovery of amounts in respect of maintenance grants from the relevant authority on the same basis as that provided for under Part IV of the 1995 Regulations.