The Education (Education Standards Grants) (Wales) Regulations 2001

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Section 484 of the Education Act 1996 enables the National Assembly for Wales to make regulations providing for the payment of grants in respect of expenditure incurred by local education authorities for or in connection with educational purposes which it appears to the National Assembly those authorities should be encouraged to incur in the interests of education in Wales. These Regulations provide for the payment of such grants. They re-enact, with some changes, the Education (Education Standards Grants) (Wales) Regulations 2000. The provisions of the Regulations, and the changes from the earlier Regulations, are outlined below.

• Regulation 1: provides for citation, commencement and application. The regulations come into force on 1st April 2001 and apply only in relation to Wales.

• Regulation 2: contains definitions.

• Regulation 3: provides for grants to be payable only in respect of expenditure incurred by a local education authority for or in connection with the purposes specified in the Schedule in a financial year, and only to the extent that the expenditure is approved for that year by the National Assembly for the purposes of the Regulations.

• Regulation 4: provides for payment of grants in respect of expenditure incurred by local education authorities in making payments to third parties in respect of expenditure incurred by those third parties which would be eligible for grant if it were expenditure of the authority.

• Regulation 5: provides for the rate at which grants are payable.

• Regulations 6 to 8: set out the conditions which apply in respect of the payment of grants, including audit requirements. The date in regulation 6(5) for submitting a statement and auditor’s certificate to the National Assembly has been changed from 31 July to 31 October.

• Regulation 9: allows the National Assembly to require a local education authority to supply it with information.

• Regulation 10: allows the Assembly to impose additional requirements.

• Regulation 11: allows the Assembly to require local education authorities to delegate spending decisions to school governing bodies.

• Regulation 12: revokes earlier Regulations subject to transitional provisions.

• Schedule: provides for the purposes for or in connection with which grants may be paid. The arrangement of the paragraphs in the Schedule has been altered. The substantial changes to the Schedule are as follows:

  • the removal of the provision relating to the implementation and administration of schemes for financing maintained schools (paragraph 1(a) in the earlier Regulations);

  • an amendment to paragraph 1(h) (paragraph 18 in the earlier Regulations) relating to personal and social education;

  • a new paragraph 3(b) relating to a review of existing educational provision for children aged under five;

  • an amendment to paragraph 5(e) (paragraph 15 in the earlier Regulations) extending training in child protection matters to cover all school staff and local education authority support staff; and

  • a new paragraph 5(f) relating to children looked after by a local education authority.