Audit Office criticism after Education Authority NI's £19m overspend
Department says deficit causes included school budgets, special education needs and school mainteance
Last updated 1st May 2018
The Northern Ireland Audit Office has hit out at the Education Authority NI after it overspent its budget by £19.1m.
The EA's budget for 2016/17 was £1,543m but it spent £1,562m.
Audit Office Comptroller and auditor general, Kieran Donnelly, also criticised how late it took to confirm the budget.
He said: "“I am concerned that the EA was presented with its budget allocation for 2016-17 on 10 March 2016 and only formally advised six working days prior to the start of the financial year.
“It took EA almost five months to agree a strategy which would balance its 2016-17 budget and had additional funds not been allocated in-year by DE, the overspend would have been significantly higher."
The EA said the he education budget had declined in real terms by £200m since 2010-11.
And it added that most of the services were driven by policy requirements and more than 80% of costs were staff based.
Chief Executive, Gavin Boyd said there was very little room for reducing spending without seriously impacting the educational experiences of children and young people.
He said: "The education sector has been facing growing financial pressures since 2010/11. These had a major impact in 2016/17 as budgets have continued to reduce and more schools are going into deficit.
"EA has been working hard to reduce costs whilst maintaining the delivery of important services to children and young people. Despite increased demand for services such as support for children with special educational needs, EA spent around £19m less in 2016/17 than in the previous year.
"EA believes that transformation of our education system is required to ensure that we maximise the use of limited resources for the benefit of our children and young people.
"Around 99% of EA’s budget is spent directly on schools or on services directly supporting children and young people. This leaves very little room for reducing spending without seriously impacting the educational experiences of our children and young people.
"Whilst we continue to make the case for more money for education, we have also been meeting regularly with school principals and other education partners to promote the need for transformation. We must ensure that our education system delivers what we need for our young people and is based on a model that is financially sustainable in the longer term.
"EA’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2016/17 highlight the significant work as we continue to establish EA as a regional organisation whilst maintaining delivery of essential services with significantly fewer staff and less money.
"We recognise the significance of the £19m overspend in 2016/17 highlighted by the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) and we welcome his recognition of the challenges we face as an organisation. The C&AG Report highlights that the main causes of the overspend are higher than budgeted expenditure by schools as well as increased spending on support for children with special educational needs and on school maintenance.
"There are very real challenges facing schools and the wider education sector. We will continue to make the case for additional funding. However, EA also believes that transformation of our education system is required to ensure that we maximise the use of limited resources for the benefit of our children and young people. This will take time and requires political and financial support."
Ulster Unionist Education Spokesperson, Rosemary Barton MLA, said the overspend was an indication that the local education system has for some time been facing an untenable funding position.
She said:“No one will be surprised to hear that our local schools are finding it increasingly difficult to balance their budgets, but they will be surprised at the sheer pace and scale at which the situation is deteriorating.
“The confirmation from the Audit Office that the Education Authority overspent its budget in 2016/17 is serious, but the reality is we are in a much worse position now than we were then.
“It is my understanding that last year an additional 22 primary schools moved into a deficit position compared to 2016/17, the year which the Audit Office has just reported on. That, combined with the fact that dozens of other schools were already in a similar position, has subsequently resulted in the Education Authority again overspending by approximately a further £20m in 2017/18.
“Growing pupil numbers and year-on-year shrinking budgets are combining to create a perfect storm. Our local education system also faces annual increases in pay costs of approximately £60m, so most frontline savings that can be made, have already been made.
“It is shocking that the funding situation in our local education system is critical and absolutely nothing is being done to resolve it."