The role of the Local Education Authority is to provide the parents, pupils and school staff with decisions about the education of their children. The majority of councils are independent but there are hundreds of partly autonomous local authorities in England and Wales who have been set up as community organization’s by the left wing anti-austerity parties. The LEA was formed in 1996 when the then Labour government introduced community control into schools. This brought greater powers to the councils, allowing them to take more control of schools.
The education authority is also responsible for running: The schools and making sure that they meet educational requirements. Their first responsibility is to promote pupil development through quality education. This includes ensuring that all children have the right qualifications for training and what they will need for university. All councils must ensure that all pupils get an education that enables them to gain a qualification at the end of their compulsory schooling. This is known as the ‘national curriculum’, set down by the government for England and Wales. The LEA promotes this curriculum throughout England and Wales so that every child has the opportunity to learn and enjoy a quality education.
In order for a local education authority to be able to carry out this role then it must be properly funded.
Education is a public service and is delivered via a large number of bodies and there is no central funding body for education. Funding for local education is provided by local taxes which are raised locally and not from the government at a national level. This means that although the LEA has a statutory duty to maintain a certain level of expenditure for local education, the amount of money provided is subject to annual reviews by the councils.
At the next stage of the education process: The parents of any children attending any particular school apply to the LEA for funding. If they are approved, then each local education authority in England & Wales is obliged to award funding to those schools that meet the minimum criteria set by the Local Education Authorities of each area. These criteria are determined by the performance of the school and how well it suits the needs of the local area. This funding then allows the school to carry out its educational role.
There are two bodies within the Local Education: Authority of England & Wales. The first is the Local Enterprise Development Programmed (LEAD), which is an agency of the Department for Education. The second is the Local Education Assistance Partnership (LEAP), which is an independent operator body set up by the LEA. Each of these bodies meets each year to determine eligibility for funding, as well as any changes that may be necessary. The main functions of these bodies are to make sure that all schools in the country are properly funded, to monitor those schools and to promote new initiatives in education.
Although these bodies have statutory duties: Each authority has the power to decide its own priorities and to set its own rates for the various taxes it collects. They also have the power to set standards for schools to achieve specific educational outcomes. These standards are referred to as ‘national targets’, and schools are required to achieve at least one of them. However, it is possible for a school to fail to meet even these standards and therefore be left outside the education authority’s remit. In such cases, the school can appeal to the government for funding, either through the Education Funding Formula (Eff) or the National Parent Learning Initiative (NPKI).