“Schools' plight”: Education Authority predicts £200m shortfall
Last updated 24th Aug 2022
The Education Authority is bracing for the most challenging year financially “by some distance”, according to a senior official.
The EA’s Financial Director claims that they face a potential deficit of £200m this year.
No formal budget settlements for the Department for Education can be made in the absence of an Executive at Stormont.
Worse still, this potential deficit figure was arrived at in Spring, before the worst of the energy price increases, meaning the shortfall could be even greater now.
Although the EA balanced the books last year, Seamus Wade says that monitoring round money, which was "a significant part of the reason why we broke even", is not factored into the budget.
The monitoring round is when the Finance Minister reallocates unspent treasury money to other departments.
"What we are really looking for is for all parties to come together to ensure that the requirements of the education sector are not lost in the decisions about the allocation of moneys, and really, to move us away from a situation where we are relying heavily on in-year monitoring round monies for the provision of core services.
"We really need to get to a point where we have a long-term, sustainable funding model. The in-year monitoring round process is not sustainable as it does not help us plan," he said.
Mr Wade also explained how another a key, costly issue is that the EA must foot the bill when schools have not received as much money as they need.
“If a school can’t live within the budget that has been provided to it by the Department, then the element of that budget that is in deficit has to be picked up by the Education Authority.
"What we project this year, is that in and around £40million of increasing deficits will be incurred by schools that they can’t meet themselves.”
However, the Department of Finance says it will not be possible to alter the procedure of setting baseline funding without an Executive in place to back the change.
He said that it sometimes feels as though education is sometimes forgotten about, and went on to suggest that without change, there will be negative impacts on the educational outcomes of local children.
Mr Wade assures that no cuts to key services are anticipated despite the financial worries for the year ahead.
The Department of Finance said, in a statement to Downtown / Cool FM, that "pressures are becoming more pressing every day", and that the absence of an Executive is "hampering" support.
"Monitoring round funding only becomes available when funds are surrendered by Departments or when additional funding is received from Westminster.
"It is therefore not possible to factor potential monitoring round funding into baselines. Any reallocation of funding between Departments to set new baselines requires an Executive.
"The move from a single-year budget to a three-year budget would have provided certainty and longer-term planning for public services. Unfortunately in the absence of an Executive a multi-year Budget has not been agreed.
"The pressures on public sector delivery are becoming more pressing every day.
The continued absence of an Executive, and lack of a Budget and mechanism to make decisions is undoubtedly hampering efforts to get financial support to where it is needed. "
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