NASUWT Representatives

Budgetswww.nasuwt.org.ukSchool governing bodies are responsible for setting the budgeteach year. In academies and free schools, this function may bedelegated to the headteacher/principal.All funding devolved to schools, including pupil premiumfunding, is available to governors and headteachers to decidewhat to spend it on. As the year progresses, they can movefunds from one heading to another. This is called virement.Headteachers can decide how to make use of pupil premiumfunding in the school. This should be done to support theprogress made by pupils who attract the pupil premium, but theheadteacher is not required to spend pupil premium fundingspecifically on the child for which the pupil premium allocationwas made.Employers in the independent sector, including in state-fundedacademies and free schools, may be reluctant to shareinformation on budgets and running costs, but the NASUWTRepresentative should, where possible, obtain relevantinformation in order to engage in a meaningful dialogue aboutdecisions affecting members within the school/college.For schools, the budget construction, monitoring and reportingis a cyclical process. The outturn of one year informs decisionson the budget for the succeeding year. During what is now aperiod of shrinking budgets and significant change, theCoalition Government has abandoned multi-year budgeting.For the year 2013/14 there are to be significant changes to themethodology for distributing funding between the LA andmaintained schools. The Coalition Government has removed agreat deal of the flexibility available to local authorities to tailorthe funding available to local needs, and has required LAs todelegate much more funding out to schools, and away fromlocal services traditionally provided by the LA. Apart fromincreasing the burden on schools, this also puts at risk thesecentral services and particularly puts at risk the fundingavailable for trade union facility time. It is vital that NASUWTlocal officers engage with their LAs and the schools forum fortheir schools to ensure that this funding is de-delegated back tothe local authority, a move allowed under the regulations.The process outlined below shows the currentarrangements.In October 2012, LAs submitted provisional Schools Budgetpro-forma to the Education Funding Agency (EFA).On 28 November 2012, the School Census database was to beclosed.33For advice and help ˚ Local Association ˚ Regional Centre ˚ National Executive