Budget 2011-15: Savings Delivery Plan

The Budget 2011-15 outcome for education has produced major challenges as the level of funding available over the period 2011-12 to 2014-15 is less than what had previously been in place.  The shortfall between the Department’s anticipated spending requirements and the Budget 2011-15 outcome is some £101m / £187m / £229m / £306m across the 4 year Budget period and a Savings Delivery Plan has been developed to address this gap in funding.  These savings measures seek to:

• protect spend on Departmental priorities;
• bear down on unnecessary bureaucracy; and
• protect, as far as possible, funding for frontline services.   

The Education Minister announced on 17 November 2011 that he was reallocating an additional £10m / £15m / £15m into the Aggregated Schools Budget (ASB) in 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively.  Subsequent to this, on 12 January 2012 the Executive agreed that further additional funding of £30m / £15m / £75m over the period 2012-13 to 2014-15 was to be allocated directly to schools.   These 2 measures have led to a reduction in the level of savings to be delivered from the ASB, from that originally planned.  The Savings Delivery Plan has been updated to reflect these changes.

Budget 2011-15: Savings Delivery Plan for the Department of Education - PDF 12KB