Calls for more transparency around Gov funding for education

Wednesday 11 December 2024

More transparency is needed around Government funds used for educational purposes, according to the panel of politicians responsible for scrutinising Jersey's school system.

The Children, Education, and Home Affairs Panel this week published its findings and recommendations following an in-depth review of secondary education funding in Jersey.

Launched in June 2023, the review examined how Government funding has supported secondary schools, and evaluated the impact of recent changes introduced by the new Jersey Funding Formula and initiatives such as the Education Reform Programme.

Pictured: The report highlighted the Government grants given to private secondary schools.

The report suggested 24 recommendations, focusing on critical issues that the Panel believes require urgent attention from the Education Minister and Government.

The recommendations prioritised greater transparency in the allocation and use of public funds for secondary education.

The Panel called on the Education Minister to commit to making the grant funding and other financial support provided for educational purposes more transparent.

The report said: "The Panel’s findings and recommendations about Government funding for both fee-paying and private schools demonstrate that the process should be more transparent, so parents and the public are aware of the funding structure and use of public money for this purpose.

"The Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning has indicated that further decisions about the formula for funding fee paying schools may be made for 2026, so the Panel has recommended that the Minister take action to change the long-term funding for both fee paying schools and improve the transparency of the grants provided to assist private schools, where applicable."

It comes just two months after Express made public financial documents showing that Beaulieu Convent School recorded a loss of more than £379,000 in 2022, and had forecast a loss of £1.2m for 2023.

Pictured: Beaulieu's 2022 financial statements were published in October after repeated queries from Express.

Express also uncovered that the situation at the convent school had become so difficult that the Government had to step in to guarantee a £2.5 million overdraft and take on the lease for its buildings over summer. 

The Scrutiny Panel's report noted that, as a recipient of a Government grant over £75,000, De La Salle College's annual accounts were made publicly available, as per the requirements in the Public Finances Manual.

However, the annual accounts for Beaulieu have not been made available on the grounds of commercial sensitivity.

The Panel found that, in addition to Government grants, some further funding was provided – including £16,000 to Beaulieu for parental fees hardship funding in the pandemic, the £7.3m loan given to Beaulieu in 2019 to support a series of capital projects, a fiscal stimulus grant of £445,000 given to Beaulieu in 2022, and £424,000 granted by CYPES in in 2023 for private school bursaries.

The report said that, despite targeted funding for inclusion initiatives, core budgets for secondary schools remain under significant strain.

Politicians found that the financial deficit has decreased for the non-fee paying provided secondary schools since the introduction of the Jersey Funding Formula in 2022, but has not been totally removed.

The deficit for the fee-paying provided secondary schools has fluctuated over the same period of time, but they are not subject to the new funding formula calculations.

The two Government provided fee-paying schools – JCG and Victoria College – reported a deficit of £372,696 last year.

The report said that, while funding has increased and has partly addressed the previous deficit in non-fee-paying schools, it has not kept up with Jersey’s RPI inflation.

It was recommended that the Education Minister should publish regular figures which clarify any differences between the funding of students at the non-fee paying schools and fee-paying schools so that any changes or disparity in the per pupil funding rates, or overall spend per pupil, are open to transparent public scrutiny. 

The Panel also recommended that the Education Minister should improve the transparency of the funding formula, for example, by outlining which staff roles are mandatory funded roles and which are the roles where the funding can be repurposed by the Headteacher or school.