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Statistical Bulletin Edn/B10/2001/1: Budgeted School Running Costs: 2000-2001

7. Statistical Notes and Definitions

1. Sources

Annual budgeted running cost information is provided to The Scottish Executive by the education authorities, and managers of grant-aided and self-governing schools. The total budgeted running cost of each school relates to the period April 2000 to 31 March 2001, and similarly for previous years.

School roll information is provided to The Scottish Executive by schools each September as part of the annual School Census.

2. Coverage

This report contains three years’ information on school roll and budgeted school running costs, for education authority primary and secondary schools, at summary level (Tables 4 and 5). Two years’ information is provided for all education authority primary and secondary, grant-aided and self-governing schools in Scotland (Sections 5 and 6).

This report does not provide information on costs in special schools, independent schools or pre-school establishments.

Schools which closed at the end of the 1999-2000 session are not included in the report.

The costs of schools with rolls between one and four pupils are not shown in the report (denoted by **).

Charts 2 and 3 do not include points for schools which have budgeted running costs higher than £10,000 per pupil per year. However, where the school roll is greater than four pupils, the relevant figure is shown in the tables.

The costs of schools which have recently opened or merged with another school are not shown, nor included in any calculations, since meaningful information is not available (denoted by ##).

The costs of schools with pre-school classes or both primary and secondary departments have been split into the appropriate sectors. The cost and roll figures shown therefore refer to the primary and secondary sectors only in each case.

3. Definitions

The figures set out in this bulletin are defined as follows:

· Total budgeted school running cost for the year 1 April to 31 March is defined by the School Boards (Financial Information) (Scotland) Regulations 1990. It includes:

Staff Costs including salary costs for permanent and temporary teachers and instructors, school-based administrative and support staff, janitors and manual grades and other costs related to employment of staff.

Premises Costs including rent and rates, insurance, repairs and maintenance, gas, electricity and other fuels, fixtures and fittings and the cleaning of school premises.

Supplies Costs including books, materials and educational equipment.

Transport Costs including leasing of vehicles for the school, repairs and maintenance of vehicles and equipment and running costs.

Examination Entry Fees.

School Board Related Costs including the cost of School Board administration, training and other related expenditure.

Other School Running Costs including the cost of school hostels and catering.

The overall cost figure is provided to each School Board annually. It may not necessarily include all the costs of running the school. Other costs relating to the school may also have been incurred during the period, for example, capital spending or a proportion of total education authority expenditure on services such as those provided by advisers and psychologists. These costs would not necessarily be included in the school running cost total provided to the School Board.

· School roll for any session is the total number of pupils on the roll in the school census taken in September of that session. It does not include adults enrolled for day-time classes, pupils of other schools who use the facilities of the school on a part-time basis, or other individuals who use the school facilities, for example, where the school is a community school. For the purpose of this report, pupils who are placed in special units are included in the school roll.

· Budgeted school running cost per pupil is obtained by dividing the total budgeted school running costs by the school roll. You should note that while the school roll used for the calculation for this year's figures is the roll for the 1999-2000 school session, the budgeted school costs actually relate to the period from 1 April 2000 to 31 March 2001. This period covers part of the 1999-2000 school session and part of the 2000-2001 school session. The corresponding periods for school roll and cost figures were used in previous years.

· The education authority average is the average cost for all pupils in education authority schools only. Education authority averages have been calculated separately for the primary and secondary sectors.

· The national average shows the average for education authority, grant-aided and self-governing schools in Scotland. National averages have been calculated separately for the primary and secondary sectors.

The corresponding figures for the previous year are also shown in the school-by-school tables. It should be noted, however, that over these two years, some authorities may have made changes to their policy on which costs are allocated to school level. Also, there may have been changes made to the way specific costs are allocated to individual schools. Further, a school budget for 2000-2001 may have been revised as a result of the actual costs incurred during 1999-2000. All of the costs shown in this report are budgeted, not actual.

4. Interpretation of figures for individual schools

While the legislation specifies that the above cost headings are used in all cases, it allows for some flexibility in the composition of the figures under some of the headings. Certain costs may either be budgeted for at individual school level or included as central education authority costs. Examples would be debt repayment changes or the costs of providing for special educational needs. If such costs have not been allocated at school level then they will not be included in the total budgeted school running costs. As a result, figures for schools in one education authority may not be directly comparable with those in another education authority nor with figures for a grant-aided or self-governing school.

Firmer comparisons should, in principle, be possible between schools within any one education authority although even then care is needed. In a number of cases, schools that are currently managed by one education authority were formerly managed by different predecessor regions and island areas. Previous differences in the basis for funding might still have some effect. There may be complications even for schools that were linked to the same predecessor authority. For example, the phasing of schemes of devolved school management may result in different proportions of total running costs being allocated directly to different groups of schools in particular years.

The following points should also be considered when looking at the costs given in the school tables:

• Larger schools will generally have larger total running costs than small schools. However, because of the particular circumstances of each school, you should not expect budgeted running costs per pupil to be linked exactly to school rolls.
• In large schools there may be savings because some costs can be spread out over a larger number of pupils. For example, staff costs are the largest single element of total costs and the pupil-teacher ratio is generally higher in large schools.
• Schools with rolls well below their capacity may have higher overhead costs than other schools with similar rolls. Overhead costs are fixed costs which cannot be avoided, such as rates and heating costs. In schools which are not at their full capacity, it may be possible for more pupils to attend the school without the need to employ extra teaching staff or significantly increase other running costs.
• The age and condition of a school’s buildings will affect the expenditure on repairs and maintenance and possibly on fuel. For example, older school buildings may be more expensive to maintain and heat.
• Any significant change in the school roll over the two sessions to which the 2000-2001 information refers may affect the budgeted cost per pupil figure in the table. If the education authority has budgeted for a roll rising above the September 1999 census figure, the costs may appear to be relatively high, and vice versa.
• The inclusion of a special unit at a school may significantly affect the budgeted running cost per pupil. The running cost per pupil of a special unit can be expected to be higher than the running costs for pupils in the other part of the school. However, the overall effect will be heavily dependent on the number of pupils in the special unit and the nature of their needs.
• Some education authorities have a policy to provide extra staffing and resources to certain schools. For example, extra teachers may be given to schools in an area designated for priority treatment. Such schools are likely to have higher budgeted costs than schools of a similar roll in other areas.
• Some secondary schools offer courses to large numbers of adult returners or pupils of other schools. These individuals are not included in the school roll figure for the report. There may be different practices for allocating the costs in these cases.
• Some schools serving sparsely populated areas have hostels, the cost of which is included in the total budgeted costs.
• In a number of cases, schools have several departments, for example, primary and pre-school classes, primary and secondary. Costs for the primary and secondary departments have been allocated separately by the education authority. However, some staff and facilities may be shared. The costs may be rather lower than would have been the case if the departments operated as completely separate schools.
• In a number of cases schools may share a single building or two schools may occupy a single campus with shared facilities and services. Costs have been allocated to each relevant individual school by the education authority.
• Some education authorities locate community provision in certain schools. This is often reflected by the inclusion of 'community' in the name of the school. Some other schools may have central resources or staff located there. The running costs in all such cases should be shared between the various users but there may be different practices between authorities.

5. Symbols

Two asterisks (**) have been inserted in the tables for costs of schools with rolls between one and four pupils.

Two hashes (##) have been inserted where a school has recently opened or merged with another schools and this information is not available.

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