(This note is not part of the Regulations)
Section 484 of the Education Act 1996 enables the National Assembly for Wales (“the National Assembly”) to make regulations providing for the payment of grant in respect of expenditure incurred or to be 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 grant.
Regulation 3 provides that grant is only payable in connection with the purpose specified in the Schedule, and only to the extent that the expenditure is approved by the National Assembly.
Regulation 4 provides for payment of grant in respect of expenditure incurred or to be 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 that grant is to be payable at the rate of 100%.
Regulations 6 to 8 set out the conditions which apply in respect of the payment of grant, including audit requirements. Regulation 9 sets out a number of other requirements with which local education authorities, to whom grant payments have been made, must comply. Regulation 10 allows the National Assembly to impose additional requirements.
The Schedule sets out the purpose for or in connection with which grant may be paid, which is the making of post-compulsory education awards in connection with the scheme established by the National Assembly known as the Assembly Learning Grant Scheme. Under the Scheme local education authorities may pay awards to those undertaking courses of further or higher education designated for the purposes of the Scheme, who meet the conditions as to financial resources and other eligibility criteria of the Scheme. The purpose of the Scheme is to enable those with few financial resources to take advantage of educational opportunities available to them, by reducing financial hardship.