Commentary on Sections Pupil referral units Section 50: financing of pupil referral units
253.Section 50 amends section 45 of SSFA 1998.
254.Section 45 provides for every maintained school in England and Wales to have a budget share allocated to it by the local authority that maintains it. This section adds a new paragraph (d) to section 45(1A) to include pupil referral units in the definition of “maintained school”. The effect is that every pupil referral unit in England will receive a budget share from the local authority that maintains it.
255.The section also modifies paragraph (a) of section 45(3) so that the reference to pupil referral units refers only to Wales, as the change introduced by this section applies to England only.
256.New paragraph (aa), is inserted after section 45(3)(a) and means that all references in Chapter 4 of Part 2 of SSFA 1998 to the governing body of a maintained school should, with respect to pupil referral units in England, be read as references to the management committee of a unit. This overrides paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 to EA 1996, which provides that references to a governing body, in relation to pupil referral units, are to be read as references to the local authority. New paragraph (ab) provides that in Chapter 4 references to governors in relation to pupil referral units are to be read as references to members of the management committee.