Budget 2015/16

The Budget 2015 to 2016 was approved by the Assembly on 15 January 2015, setting the following resource and capital spending plans for the Department for the 2015 to 2016 financial year.

Funding available for the Department of Education

The budget is used to fund both education and youth services. The largest element of the resource budget is allocated directly to schools (around 60%) to meet their on-going running costs.

Savings Delivery Plan

In order to deliver a balanced 2015 to 2016 budget a Savings Delivery Plan (SDP) has been developed.

The Budget 2015-16 outcome for education produced major challenges for the Department as the level of funding available is less than had previously been in place in 2014-15.

The Resource Budget funding gap between the Department’s anticipated spending requirements and the Budget 2015-16 is £97.6m which is made up of two key elements:

1. £29.5m year on year reduction in cash funding
2. £68.1m of inescapable pressures

The scale of the budget reductions required in 2015-16 means that these cannot be delivered through efficiency savings alone, especially in light of the savings already delivered during the Budget 2011-15 period.

In reaching final decisions on the Budget reductions a Savings Delivery Plan was developed to address the gap in funding. 

• Savings Delivery Plan

Draft Budget 2015 to 2016 consultation

The Education Minister, John O'Dowd published the DE Draft Budget 2015-16 on 26 November 2014.

• Draft Budget 2015-16 - DE Consultation

Please note that the DE Draft Budget 2015 to 2016 consultation is now closed.

Budget 2015-16 - Equality Screenings and Equality Impact Assessments (EQIA's)

The Department of Education is committed to ensuring that it fulfils its duties under Section 75 (1) and (2) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 by having due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity and having regard to the desirability of promoting good relations.

The Department has undertaken a preliminary, high-level screening of the proposed Resource Budget Reductions at draft budget and final budget stage, in line with our equality obligations, and they are largely considered to have no or minor impacts.

We have also considered the potential impact at individual budget reduction level and Equality Screenings indicate that there is largely either no differential impact or no significant differential impact. Individual Equality Screenings can be found on the Equality Screenings webpage. An Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) can be found on EQIA Proposal To End Earmarked CRED Funding

• Draft budget equality screening forms

Consultation responses

There was an overwhelming response to the consultation confirming a high level of public interest in this very important issue. The Department received a total of 23,052 responses: 6,643 were received via e-mail, 1,818 signatures were submitted via an online petition and 14,591 hard copy responses were received via the post; this included 6,407 petition signatures.

Due to the large volume of consultation responses it has not been practical to provide a full list of respondents and copies of their responses on the Department’s website.

A summary includes:

• The DE Budget should be protected from reductions, at least in part
• Significant teaching and non-teaching redundancies will be required
• Implementation of these redundancies on 1 April 2015 is impossible
• It is critical that the terms of severance are agreed and notified urgently, to allow the correct processes and notice periods contained within the collective agreements and statutory requirements to be followed
• Clarity is required as to which spending areas, if any, will be protected in 2015-16
• Policies relating to transport, school meals, SEN, CFS and teacher sickness absence may need to be revised in light of the proposed budget reductions
• Consideration should be given as to the viability of initiatives and whether non statutory areas should be continued on the grounds of affordability. This funding might instead be directed to the delivery of frontline services within schools
• The draft budget reductions will lead to
• Larger class sizes
• Lower levels of academic achievement
• Greater stress on school staff from increased workloads
• Higher sickness absence
• Lower teaching standards
• A reduced curriculum being offered
• Less resources available for pupils e.g. schoolbooks etc.

Accounts

The Department of Education is responsible for producing the following annual accounts:

• Department of Education Resource Accounts
• Teachers' Superannuation Annual Scheme Statements

The Department provides funding to a number of public and private sector bodies, including Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs).

Financial information in relation to the Department's NDPBs is reported separately in their individual annual reports and accounts.