Schemes for financing schools – annexes

Annex A – Schools covered by the scheme

Nursery schools:

• Blagrave
• Blagdon
• Caversham
• New Bridge
• Norcot

Primary schools:

• Alfred Sutton
• All Saints Infants
• Caversham Primary
• Caversham Park Primary
• Christ The King RC Primary
• Coley Primary
• E P Collier Primary
• Emmer Green Primary
• English Martyrs RC Primary
• Geoffrey Field Infant
• Geoffrey Field Junior
• Hill Primary,The
• Katesgrove Primary
• Manor Primary
• Micklands Primary
• Moorlands Primary
• Oxford Road Primary
• Park Lane Primary
• Redlands Primary
• Ridgeway Primary
• Southcote Primary
• St. Annes RC Primary
• St. Martins RC Primary
• St. Michaels Primary
• Thameside Primary
• Whitley Park Primary
• Wilson Primary

Secondary schools

• Hugh Faringdon

Special schools:

• The Holy Brook

Pupil referral units (PRU)

• Cranbury College

Annex B – Interest charges on advances

The calculation basis of the deduction that the Council may make from a school’s budget share in respect of estimated interest lost will be at a rate up to 2% higher than the rate applicable to funds invested with the Council on any amount advanced.

For example:

Suppose the normal instalments the Councils agrees to pay are one twelfth of the budget at the start of each month. A school with an annual budget of £300,000 asks for its March instalment 10 months earlier in May. Assuming that the current interest rate applicable to funds invested with the Council is 3% then, the interest charge on that advance will be calculated as:

(annual budget / 12) x (number of days in advance / 365) x (current interest rate + 2%) = interest charge

(£300,000 / 12 = £25,000) x (305 / 365 = £20,890) x (3% + 2%) = £1,045

Annex C – Requirement to provide data on teacher pensions

In order to ensure that the performance of the duty on Reading Borough Council to supply Teachers Pensions with information under the Teachers’ Pensions Regulations 1997, the following conditions are imposed on RBC and governing bodies of all maintained schools covered by this Scheme in relation to their budget shares.

The conditions only apply to governing bodies of maintained schools that have not entered into an arrangement with Reading Borough Council to provide payroll services.

A governing body of any maintained school, whether or not the employer of the teachers at such a school, which has entered into any arrangement or agreement with a person other than the Authority to provide payroll services, shall ensure that any such arrangement or agreement is varied to require that person to supply salary, service and pensions data to the Authority which the Authority requires to submit its annual return of salary and service to Teachers’ Pensions and to produce its audited contributions certificate. The Authority will advise schools each year of the timing, format and specification of the information required. A governing body shall also ensure that any such arrangement or agreement is varied to require that Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) are passed to RBC within the time limit specified in the AVC scheme. The governing body shall meet any consequential costs from the school’s budget share.

A governing body of any maintained school which directly administers its payroll shall supply salary, service and pensions data to RBC which the Authority requires to submit its annual return of salary and service to Teachers’ Pensions and to produce its audited contributions certificate. Reading Borough Council will advise schools each year of the timing, format and specification of the information required from each school. A governing body shall also ensure that Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) are passed to the Authority within the time limit specified in the AVC scheme. The governing body shall meet any consequential costs from the school’s budget share.

Annex D – Responsibility for redundancy and early retirement costs

This guidance note summarises the position relating to the charging of voluntary early retirement and redundancy costs. It sets out what is specified in legislation and provides some examples of when it might be appropriate to charge an individual school’s budget, the central Schools Budget or the local authority’s non-schools budget.

Section 37 of the 2002 Education Act says:

(4) costs incurred by the local education authority in respect of any premature retirement of a member of the staff of a maintained school shall be met from the school’s budget share for one or more financial years except in so far as the authority agree with the governing body in writing (whether before or after the retirement occurs) that they shall not be so met
(5) costs incurred by the local education authority in respect of the dismissal, or for the purpose of securing the resignation, of any member of the staff of a maintained school shall not be met from the school’s budget share for any financial year except in so far as the authority have good reason for deducting those costs, or any part of those costs, from that share.
(6) The fact that the authority have a policy precluding dismissal of their employees by reason of redundancy is not to be regarded as a good reason for the purposes of subsection (5); and in this subsection the reference to dismissal by reason of redundancy shall be read in accordance with section 139 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (c. 18).

The default position, therefore, is that premature retirement costs must be charged to the school’s delegated budget, while redundancy costs must be charged to the local authority’s budget. In the former case, the local authority has to agree otherwise for costs to be centrally funded, while in the latter case, there has to be a good reason for it not to be centrally funded, and that cannot include having a no redundancy policy. Ultimately, it would be for the courts to decide what was a good reason, but the examples set out below indicate the situations in which exceptions to the default position might be taken.

Charge of dismissal/resignation costs to delegated school budget

• If a school has decided to offer more generous terms than the authority’s policy, then it would be reasonable to charge the excess to the school
• If a school is otherwise acting outside the local authority’s policy
• Where the school is making staffing reductions which the local authority does not believe are necessary to either set a balanced budget or meet the conditions of a licensed deficit
• Where staffing reductions arise from a deficit caused by factors within the school’s control
• Where the school has excess surplus balances and no agreed plan to use these
• Where a school has refused to engage with the local authority’s redeployment policy

Charge of premature retirement costs to local authority non-schools budget

• Where a school has a long-term reduction in pupil numbers and charging such costs to their budget would impact on standards
• Where a school is closing, does not have sufficient balances to cover the costs and where the central Schools Budget does not have capacity to absorb the deficit
• Where charging such costs to the school’s budget would prevent the school from complying with a requirement to recover a licensed deficit within the agreed timescale
• Where a school is in special measures, does not have excess balances and employment of the relevant staff is being/has been terminated as a result of local authority or government intervention to improve standards

Costs of early retirements or redundancies may only be charged to the central part of the Schools Budget where the expenditure is to be incurred as a result of decisions made before 1st April 2013. Costs may not exceed the amount budgeted in the previous financial year.

It is important that the local authority discusses its policy with its Schools Forum. Although each case should be considered on its merits, this should be within an agreed framework. It may be reasonable to share costs in some cases, and some authorities operate a panel to adjudicate on applications.
A de-delegated contingency could be provided, if Schools’ Forum agree, to support individual schools where “a governing body has incurred expenditure which it would be unreasonable to expect them to meet from the school’s budget share”.

For staff employed under the community facilities power, the default position is that any costs must be met by the governing body, and can be funded from the school’s delegated budget if the governing body is satisfied that this will not interfere to a significant extent with the performance of any duties imposed on them by the Education Acts, including the requirement to conduct the school with a view to promoting high standards of educational achievement. Section 37 now states:

(7)Where a local education authority incur costs—
(a)in respect of any premature retirement of any member of the staff of a maintained school who is employed for community purposes, or
(b)in respect of the dismissal, or for the purpose of securing the resignation, of any member of the staff of a maintained school who is employed for those purposes,
they shall recover those costs from the governing body except in so far as the authority agree with the governing body in writing (whether before or after the retirement, dismissal or resignation occurs) that they shall not be so recoverable.
(7A)Any amount payable by virtue of subsection (7) by the governing body of a maintained school to the local education authority may be met by the governing body out of the school’s budget share for any funding period if and to the extent that the condition in subsection (7B) is met.
(7B) The condition is that the governing body are satisfied that meeting the amount out of the school’s budget share will not to a significant extent interfere with the performance of any duty imposed on them by section 21(2) or by any other provision of the Education Acts.
(8)Where a person is employed partly for community purposes and partly for other purposes, any payment or costs in respect of that person is to be apportioned between the two purposes; and the preceding provisions of this section shall apply separately to each part of the payment or costs.