Autumn 2006 CFS consultation
The Department of Education (DE) undertook a consultation exercise with schools on proposed changes to the operation of certain factors within the Common Funding Scheme (CFS).
The consultation period ran from 6 September 2006 until 3 November 2006. The proposed changes were put forward following detailed discussions with the Local Management of Schools (LMS) Steering Group, which includes representatives from the Education and Library Boards, the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools, the Governing Bodies Association (GBA), NI Council for Integrated Education (NICIE) and Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta (CnaG).
Changes proposed do not in themselves change the key principles of Common Funding, which are to provide for the equitable, consistent and transparent delegation of available funding to all grant-aided schools in Northern Ireland.
Any changes to the operation of the Common Funding Formula will only be adopted after careful consideration of the responses to this consultation and, subject to Ministerial approval, these would then be applied from the 2007/08 financial year.
Consultation Documentation can be accessed via the following links:
[Note: the Consultation period has ended. Responses from schools were forwarded to the relevant Funding Authority on or before the closing date of Friday 3rd November 2006.]
Consultation arrangements
Primary and post-primary schools were issued with an email circular informing them of the consultation, including a link to the consultation information on the DE website. All Nursery schools were issued with a hard copy of the documentation.
Schools were asked to direct any queries to their relevant Funding Authority, which was provided with a Funding Model to enable it to determine indicative outcomes of the impact of the proposed changes, based on current 2006/07 funding arrangements and school profiles.
Education partner bodies or others interested in contributing their views on the consultation exercise returned their responses directly to
Schools Finance Branch
Room F23
Department of Education
Rathgael House
Balloo Road
Bangor
BT19 7PR
