Almost £2billion spent on educational services in 2008-09

Education Minister, Caitríona Ruane, today announced total spend by the Department of Education in 2008-09 hit record levels at almost £2billion.

The Minister was speaking about the outturn figures for 2008-09 and noted that an extra £115million was spent last year on education services compared to 2007-08.

The Minister said: “I have made full use of the resources available to me by the Executive last year and can report over 99% spend on both the resource and capital budgets. This is a record level of spend for education services and has ensured the continued delivery of high quality services throughout the whole of the education sector.”

The Minister pointed out that expenditure on the current budget amounted to some £1,788million in 2008-09 while on the capital budget, overall spend was almost £199million. This amounted to some 99.1% of planned spend on both these budgets.

The Minister went on to say: “The level of spend on both the current and capital budgets in 2008-09 represents a massive improvement from 2007-08. In announcing the outturn position last year I advised that my officials would be working to secure improvements in the overall financial management and delivery in services both now and in the run up to the establishment of the new Education and Skills Authority. I am able to confirm today that these improvements have allowed me to deliver on that commitment, resulting in record levels of spend for education services.”

On the current budget, £15.5million fell as underspend in 2008-09 compared to £48.7million in 2007-08. The bulk of this relates to underspend in Education and Library Boards and schools and remains committed to education. On capital investment, the level of underspend in 2008-09 was £1.8million compared to £36.1million in 2007-08. This underspend was mainly due to slippage in some projects.

The Minister said that during the past year she was able to provide additional funding for schools for the delivery of the Foundation Stage of the revised curriculum and as well as providing additional support to help primary school teaching principals. Also in 2008-09 the Minister put an additional £20million directly into schools which provided for an average increase in funding per pupil of more than 3% compared to 2007-08. In addition, funding was provided for the implementation of the revised statutory curriculum and associated assessment arrangements.

On capital investment the Minister stressed that the Department had spent to within 1% of the budget. During the past year, this has driven real, practical results including the completed construction of eight new school buildings together with the extension/refurbishment of one large primary school.

Commenting on these results the Minister said: “Children and young people deserve nothing less than to be educated in modern, safe accommodation and our successful management of budgets will help to deliver this. A key priority of mine is to build as many new schools as possible and anyone who understands the infrastructure development process will know what a challenge it is to achieve a programme of this size. It is a credit to all concerned that we have made this progress.

“During the past year, we have driven real, practical results including the completed construction of eight new school buildings together with the extension and refurbishment of one large primary school. Construction work also started on a further seven capital projects and a package of four new schools was agreed on which construction has also now started since April.”

Stressing the economic benefits of the capital investment, the Minister continued: “While the educational needs of children and young people must come first, we can not and should not underestimate the impacts of this investment on people and communities. I am determined that the Department of Education plays a full role in tackling the aftermath of the credit crunch and in supporting local jobs while the economy is recovering."

Notes to Editors:

1. Current expenditure refers to expenditure on items that are consumed in the current financial year. This would include the salary and non-salary costs of teachers and other employees, maintenance and other running costs.

2. Capital expenditure refers to expenditure on items that are consumed over a period longer than one year. This would include new school buildings and improvements to existing school buildings.

3. Projects on which construction began included: Victoria P.S. (£1.6million); Ballyholme P.S. Bangor (£3.6million); Ballymacrickett P.S. (£2.9million); St Patrick's P.S. Saul (£1.6million); Kircubbin Nursery (£0.3million); Brookefield Special School Moira (£4.5million); St Patrick's College (£9.1million); Bangor Academy (£23.8million) *; and Holy Cross College, Strabane (£31.3million) *. (Projects marked ‘*’ include associated facilities management and planned maintenance for either a 25 or 30 year contract.)

4. In addition, construction work was also started on a further seven major capital projects. These include: Banbridge Academy (£15.9million); Templepatrick P.S. (£3.9million); Lisnagelvin P.S. (£5.4million); Lisbellaw P.S. (£2.6million); St Patrick's & St Brigid's P.S. Ballycastle (£3.9million); St Mary's College Creggan (£17million); St Cecilia's College (£17million).

5. A package of four schools was also agreed on which building has since started. These include: St Mary’s Primary School Portglenone, St Joseph’s Primary School Carryduff, Our Lady and St Patrick’s College Knock and St Patrick’s Grammar School Downpatrick. Total capital costs for these four schools amount to £45.5million and they will be delivered through a Public Private Partnership.

6. Media queries to the Department of Education Press Office on 028 9127 9755. Out of office hours please contact the Duty Press Office via pager number 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.