§ Mr. PawseyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what changes for the 1991–92 financial year he has decided to make in the arrangements for calculating annual maintenance grant for grant-maintained schools.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeI have today laid before Parliament the Education (Grant-Maintained Schools (Finance) Regulations 1991. These set out the method of calculating annual maintenance grant—AMG—for grant-maintained schools for the 1991–92 financial year.
The principal changes compared to the 1990 regulations are:
(a) the new regulations make clear that late or incomplete data submitted by LEAs need not be taken into account in finalising AMG figures. This change will ensure that grant-maintained schools receive basic budget information for each financial year as early as possible in that year, as most LEA schools do now.(b) the regulations also provide for a more standardised approach in calculating the amount a grant-maintained school will receive in respect of services previously funded centrally by its former LEA. The amount will be equivalent to 16 per cent. of the sum it receives for direct expenditure at the school—the latter normally being its budget share calculated as under its former LEA's scheme for the local management of schools.These changes will lead to greater simplicity, clarity and predictability in the calculation of AMG for each grant-maintained school.