All local authorities (LAs) are required under section 251 of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 to prepare and submit an education and children’s social care budget statement before the beginning of each financial year.
After the end of each financial year they are required to prepare an outturn statement.
Regulatory provisions directly affecting the education content of section 251 budget and outturn statements are also made in the School Finance (England) Regulations.
It is a statutory duty that LAs must publish their budget and outturn statements as and when prescribed in the administrative Direction issued by the Secretary of State for Education.
It is important that schools forums and others can compare funding and methodology between different LAs, so as to inform debate about budget levels and such issues as the balance of funding between early years, primary (reception +), secondary and special schools and therefore all statements are prepared to a common format.
Outturn Statement
The section 251 outturn statement is intended to:
- provide schools, parents and others with an interest in education and children services with details about schools and local authority funding and expenditure
- provide data for the Departmental Annual Report
- inform policy making
- inform the Treasury for monitoring purposes
- inform Parliament in its role of monitoring the Department's accountability for public funds. MPs ask about school and authority expenditure via the mechanisms of Parliamentary Questions or through the Education Select Committee
Budget Statement
The size of the school’s budget and the amounts to be given to each factor, depend on budget decisions taken by the local authority before the prescribed period. Budget statements inform schools and the public about the funding plans of the local authority.
The copy of the statement that schools receive for that period is intended to provide a clear picture of the authority's planned spending:
- How much the local authority intends to spend on the Non-Schools Education Budget outside the school's budget and other children's social care.
- How much the local authority is proposing to retain centrally within the school budget for school services.
- How the local formula is working to produce budget shares for each school in the local authority's area.