§ Mr. Anthony CoombsTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science when he will issue guidance on the provisions he would expect to be contained in the planning and establishment of schemes of financial delegation for schools which local education authorities would be required to prepare under clauses 25 to 41 of the Education Reform Bill; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Kenneth BakerI am today issuing draft guidance to all local education authorities and other interested parties on the action which local education authorities would be required to take tinder clauses 25 to 41 of the Education Reform Bill if it receives Royal Assent in its present form.
The principle of financial delegation to schools, the provisions for which are a central part of the Education Reform Bill. has been widely welcomed. The Bill affords only a broad framework. Within that, if the Bill receives Royal Assent in its present form, it will be for each local education authority to prepare its own scheme of financial delegation setting out their proposed arrangements for distributing resources between all their maintained county and voluntary schools, and for delegation to the governing bodies of all secondary schools and all primary schools with 200 or more pupils the responsibility for managing their budgets.
'The draft guidance is being issued now to inform discussion of financial delegation to schools during the remaining stages of the Bill's passage through Parliament, to help local education authorities in their planning, and to give all concerned an early opportunity to comment. Comments are invited by 15 July 1988.
Copies of the draft guidance have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses and in the Vote Office.