Department for Employment and Learning draft budget 2015-16

You can access the draft budget proposals here, or download them below.

NICVA hosted a consultation event on 11 December with DEL officials to address this budget. Our key asks resulting from this meetng will inform our response to the consultation.

The deadline for responses is 29 December 2014.

DEL draft budget summary

In addition to the detail given in the consultation document, the Minister appeared before the Assembly Employment and Learning Committee on 26 November to brief Members on the impact of the budget.

(The briefing starts at around 7 minutes)

Resource Budget: £674.4m (10.8% reduction)

Capital Budget: £33.2m

The Minister said that he would seek to protect economy-related areas (e.g. apprenticeships, youth training, shared skills and STEM) and departmental programmes concerning vulnerable people. Around 70% of DEL’s budget goes to higher and further education and some impact, it was said, would be unavoidable in that area.

He also said that grants that his department makes to the community and voluntary sector would be “constrained” in the 2015-16 period.

In order to mitigate the 10.8% cut to its own budget, DEL will be seeking to apply for funding from the European Social Fund (ESF) to fund some areas previously mainstreamed under the Department’s own budget.

In turn that will mean that we are essentially having to remove money that would otherwise going out to the community and voluntary sector, so there will be [...] a smaller pool of funds, subject that is to the bids from the Department being properly received and scored through a competitive process.”

Stephen Farry MLA, Minister for Employment and Learning

The Minister stated that he would not rule out a situation where the C&V sector could provide a service more efficiently than government (and vice versa).

Some other reductions and savings were initially outlined:

• 50% reduction in support to leadership and management training.
• Reduction in Skills Solutions service for businesses.
• Investors in People to be shifted to the UK Commission on Employment and Skills, therefore creating a saving.
• Efficiencies to be found in the Employment Service.

The document has identified £33m out of the £82m of resource reductions that need to be made. This leaves a balance of £49m to be further identified.