To report on expenditure to date on the Education Revenue Budget, and to inform the Committee about the progress of the 2003/04 Capital Programme for Education, and the prospects for further schemes to be committed.

The Committee received a report on expenditure to date on the Education Revenue Budget, and were informed about the progress of the 2003/04 Capital Programme for Education and the prospects for further schemes to be committed.

The Director of Education reported that at this stage in the year it was anticipated that education expenditure would be contained within the overall budget, although it was clear that a number of significant transfers needed to be made between school and LEA budget headings, as detailed in the report.  An assessment had been carried out of revenue expenditure to the end of August 2003.  The position, using the main categories of spending was set out in table 1 to the report.

He also reported that the first round of capital monitoring had involved an examination of progress on all schemes at the end of July 2003.  Care was being taken to ensure the forecast level of spending accurately reflected the expected spending in 2003/04 and the overall spending position was being kept under careful review.  The actual spending against each scheme to 2nd September 2003 was shown in Table 2 (an exempt report) to the report.

The Head of Policy and Resources reported that there was a margin of £600,000 available for new allocations and consideration was now being given to identifying other schemes that could be committed during the current financial year.  Any such commitments made would take into account the fact that further commitments in the current financial year would have implications for 2004/05 and possibly for subsequent financial years.  Five schemes, listed in paragraph 10 of the report, had been identified as being in accordance with the previously agreed 8 priorities for capital expenditure.

The Head of Policy and Resources briefly updated the Committee in relation to the provision of sports halls at Kingstone and Weobley.  He commented upon the use of grant funding, income from the use of facilities and operating costs in relation to Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts.

On being asked whether some schools had this year set a deficit budget the Director of Education reported that a deficit budget could only be set under agreed circumstances following which the Directorate helped the school formulate an action plan to bring it back into surplus.  He commented that in a small number of cases schools had either under-estimated their expected income or had reached a point where their level of resources needed to be reviewed.  Due to government changes to the Formula Funding Budget, this year a number of schools had received a reduced budget.  The budget situation had been compounded by increased costs i.e. Superanuation for teachers, pay awards and performance related pay.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted and the 8 priorities for capital expenditure, set out in paragraph 9 of the report and the 5 schemes, assessed as being high priority and set out in paragraph 10 of the report, be accepted.

This item disclosed the amount of any expenditure proposed to be incurred by the authority under any particular contract for the acquisition of property or the supply of goods or services.