ICT Funding For Schools Overview Current Funding streams for ICT in Schools either reduce or disappear from April 2006 Additional funding will be given to schools to compensate via more general streams A much greater financial autonomy for schools, and a greater than ever need for development and financial planning. Longer term its likely that more funding streams will be pushed out to schools precluding our ability to subsidise services and costs will follow the funding.

The Current Picture 2005/06 There are currently three ICT Grants to benefit schools - 31a, 31b & 31c Grants 31a (infrastructure) & 31c (e-Learning Credits) are devolved to schools. 31b is retained and spent centrally. It is used to develop central networking architecture and services and the installation of all of the 10 meg lines for schools has been paid for from here.

What happens Now? - 31C Funding for e-Learning credits is continuing for the next two years. 31c has become the new grant 122 Funding available to schools this year (2006/07) is £1,626, (it was £2,210, in 2005/06) Allocations will be £1000 per school and then a per pupil figure of approx £6.50

What Happens Now? –31a Bad News There is no 31a There is no single ICT in schools infrastructure grant Good News Funding is continuing via two routes Devolved Capital School Development Grant

What Happens Now? – 31a Bad News If you add up the funds available through School Development Grant (SDG) and the increase in Devolved Capital it is less than was available in 31a last year. Good News The gap isn’t huge We have managed, by using centrally retained grant to cushion the impact and reduce the cost of subscription for the next two years.

What Happens Now? Devolved Capital You have been free to spend your Devolved Capital on ICT for the last 2 years. The increase in Devolved Capital was not purely based on the inclusion of ICT funding. Please don’t assume that the increase is the figure you should be spending on ICT. You may spend as much or as little of your Devolved Capital on ICT as you wish. This could include major new investments, or a pause in investment while you have a new roof. Only ‘Capital’ ie new or replacement equipment costs can be funded via this route – ongoing costs must be met from other sources Your Devolved Capital is allocated using a national model of lump sum and per-pupil allocation – we cannot influence this in any way.

What Happens Now? School Development Grant £3,001, of the SDG is earmarked for ICT in schools. We can and have heavily influenced the way that this money is allocated to schools. The allocation has an element to cover what we know your line rental and subscription costs will be, a lump sum that varies according to what band a school is in and then a per pupil amount. We believe that this will help ‘level out’ the changes and make the total available for ICT more equitable

What Will it Mean for us? Most schools will have less money clearly earmarked for ICT – 8 years of investment also means that much of the infrastructure has been bought and rolling replacement is less costly Schools can plan investment in ICT over a period of years using Devolved Capital in a way they haven’t previously been able to. Schools that are amalgamating will, as always, feel the pinch in their first year

Funding for Connectivity& Learning is continuing 31b has become the new grant 121 Part of the £ 1,781, availble to be spent on schools behalf this year will be spent on meeting the government targets relating to connectivity, caching and content delivery; authentication (single sign-on), network security, video- conferencing and VLE ’ s. The rest will be spent on upgrading active network infrastructure to ensure schools can make the most of their broadband connectivity. What Happens Now? - 31b

The longer term Funding will work in a similar way (although we don’t know the amounts) until March We are planning on the assumption that the current trend of pushing the responsibility for funding decisions and the money to make them out to schools, will continue. If less and less money is available in the centre to subsidise our services because its being devolved to schools, then the costs will have to follow the funding and price increases to schools are therefore likely.

Future Costs – A Prediction

In Conclusion