Legislation

Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act (Northern Ireland) 1950

This Act of the Northern Ireland Parliament (not the UK Parliament in Westminster) made miscellaneous amendments to the 1947 Education Act (Northern Ireland).

The text of the Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act (Northern Ireland) 1950 was prepared by Derek Gillard and uploaded on 8 December 2014.


Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act (Northern Ireland) 1950

© Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.


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Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act (Northern Ireland) 1950

CHAPTER 1


ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS


Section

1 Extension of power of the Ministry to make grants in aid of educational services
2 Amendment of s. 105 of, and the Sixth Schedule to, the principal Act
3 Amendment of s. 76 of the principal Act
4 Notification of children requiring further care or treatment
5 Provision as to ineducable children, etc
6 Amendment of s. 49 of the principal Act
7 Presumption of age in proceedings to enforce attendance at school
8 Power to redeem certain grants payable under s. 104 of the principal Act
9 Miscellaneous amendments
10 Expenses
11 Interpretation
12 Short title, construction and citation

Schedule - Minor and Consequential Amendments of the Principal Act (1947 c. 3)




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GEORGE VI

Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act (Northern Ireland) 1950

1950 CHAPTER 1

An Act to empower the Ministry of Education to make, to local education authorities and to the managers of voluntary schools, grants towards expenditure incurred by them under the National Insurance Acts (Northern Ireland) 1946, and under any scheme of superannuation for teachers; to amend sections seventy-six and one hundred and five of, and the Sixth Schedule to, the Education Act (Northern Ireland) 1947 (c. 3); to make provision for redemption of certain loans to local education authorities; and to make certain minor and consequential amendments in other provisions of the said Act. [14th February, 1950]

BE it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, and the Senate and the House of Commons of Northern Ireland in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

1 Extension of power of the Ministry to make grants in aid of educational services

(1) Subject to the provisions of this sub-section the power of the Ministry of Education (in this Act referred to as "the Ministry") to make grants in accordance with regulations made under section one


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hundred and four of the principal Act shall include power to make to local education authorities and to the managers of voluntary schools (including nursery schools and special schools) grants in respect of expenditure incurred or to be incurred by them or on their behalf on the payment, after the relevant date, of -

(a) employers' contributions under the National Insurance Acts (Northern Ireland) 1946;

(b) employers' contributions under any scheme of superannuation for teachers established by or under any enactment for the time being in force;

in respect of such teachers employed by them as may be prescribed by the regulations, and regulations for the purposes of this section may be made to take effect from a date prior to the date of the regulations but not earlier than the relevant date:

Provided that grants shall not be made in respect of any such contributions mentioned in paragraph (a) of this sub-section as are paid after the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and fifty one.

(2) In this section the expression "relevant date" means, in the case of grants made in respect of the contributions mentioned in paragraph (a) of sub-section (1) of this section, the fifth day of July, nineteen hundred and forty-eight, and in the case of grants made in respect of the contributions mentioned in paragraph (b) of the said sub-section, means such date as may be prescribed by the regulations.

2 Amendment of s. 105 of, and the Sixth Schedule to, the principal Act

(1) The annual contributions to be paid by the council of each county and county borough towards the expenses incurred under the principal Act on the items of expenditure specified in Part I of the Sixth Schedule to that Act shall, in respect of the year ending on the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and fifty-one, and of each subsequent year, be an amount equal to the proportion attributable to the council (ascertained in accordance with the provisions of Part II of the Sixth Schedule to the principal Act) of thirty-five per cent. of the amount by which the estimated expenditure on the items of expenditure specified in Part I of the said


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Schedule exceeds the sum of two million three hundred and thirty-five thousand pounds; and accordingly, in paragraph (b) of sub-section (2) of section one hundred and five of, and in paragraph 2 of Part II of the Sixth Schedule to, the principal Act, for any reference to the sum of two million, two hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds there shall be substituted a reference to the sum of two million three hundred and thirty-five thousand pounds.

(2) There shall be included among the items of expenditure which are the specified items for the purposes of sections one hundred and four and one hundred and five of the principal Act expenditure incurred by local education authorities or by the managers of voluntary schools (including nursery schools and special schools) in defraying the contributions mentioned in paragraph (b) of sub-section (1) of section one of this Act, being contributions payable in respect of -

(i) full-time teachers in primary, intermediate and special schools;

(ii) full-time teachers in county grammar schools and in institutions of further education under the control of local education authorities;

and in respect of which grants are payable in accordance with regulations made under section one hundred and four of the principal Act; and accordingly, the Sixth Schedule to the principal Act (which in Part I thereof sets out the items of expenditure which are the specified items for the purposes of sections one hundred and four and one hundred and five of that Act) shall have effect and shall be deemed always to have had effect as if after paragraph (d) of Part I of the said Schedule there were added the following paragraph:-
"(e) employers' contributions payable by local education authorities or by the managers of voluntary schools (including nursery schools and special schools) under any scheme of superannuation for teachers established by or under any enactment for the time being in force; in respect of the teachers mentioned in paragraph (a) of this Part of this Schedule, being contributions in respect of which grants are payable in accordance with regulations made

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under section one hundred and four of this Act as amended or extended by any subsequent enactment."
(3) Expenditure incurred before, but not after, the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and fifty- one by local education authorities or by the managers of voluntary schools (including nursery schools and special schools) in defraying the contributions mentioned in paragraph (a) of sub-section (1) of section one of this Act, being contributions payable in respect of-
(a) full-time teachers in primary, intermediate and special schools;

(b) full-time teachers in county grammar schools and in institutions further education under the control of local education authorities;

and in respect of which grants are payable in accordance with regulations made under section one hundred and four of the principal Act, shall be included among the items of expenditure which are the specified items for the purposes of sections one hundred and four and one hundred and five of the principal Act and, accordingly, without prejudice to the provisions of the last preceding sub-section,the Sixth Schedule to the principal Act shall, in respect of any year ending on or before the said thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and fifty-one, have effect as if such first-mentioned expenditure were mentioned as a specified item in Part I thereof.

3 Amendment of s. 76 of the principal Act

In sub-section (1) of section seventy-six of the principal Act (which relates to the provision of scholarships by local education authorities) the words "or institutions providing further education" shall cease to have effect.

4 Notification of children requiring further care or treatment

(1) For section thirty-two of the principal Act there shall be substituted the following section:-

"32 (1) It shall be the duty of a local education authority, as respects children belonging to their education area who have been ascertained to require special educational treatment, to notify to such Government department, local authority or other body as may be prescribed by regulations made for the purposes of this section, the names of

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all such children who are about to be withdrawn from school together with such other information as may be prescribed; and in any such notification the local education authority shall make special reference to any such children in whose case the authority are of opinion that it would be to their benefit that they should be sent to an institution suitable for such cases, or placed under guardianship.

(2) Regulations for the purposes of this section may be made jointly by the Ministry and the Ministry of Health and Local Government; and regulations so made shall prescribe the form of the notification to be used under the preceding sub-section."

(2) Section forty-two of the Mental Health Act (Northern Ireland) 1948, shall cease to have effect.

5 Provision as to ineducable children, etc

For section fifty-three of the principal Act there shall be substituted the following section:-

53 Duty of health authorities with respect to ineducable children, etc

(1) If it appears to a health authority that any child in their area who has attained the age of two years is suffering from a disability of mind of such a nature or to such extent as to make him incapable of receiving education at school, it shall be the duty of the health authority by notice in writing served upon the parent of the child to require the parent to submit him for examination by a medical officer of, or a duly qualified medical practitioner nominated by, the health authority; and if a parent upon whom such a notice is served fails without reasonable excuse to comply with the requirements thereof, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding five pounds.

(2) Before any child is so medically examined as aforesaid, the health authority shall cause notice be given to the parent of the time and place at which the examination will be held, and the parent shall be entitled to be present at the examination if he so desires.


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(3) If, after considering the advice given with respect to any child by a medical officer in consequence of any such medical examination as aforesaid and any reports or information which the health authority are able to obtain from teachers or other persons with respect to the ability and aptitude of the child, the health authority decide that the child is suffering from a disability of mind of such a nature or to such an extent as to make him incapable of receiving education at school, it shall be the duty of the health authority to make to the Northern Ireland Hospitals Authority a report, in such form as the Ministry of Health and Local Government shall from time to time determine, that the child has been found incapable of receiving education at school; and any such report shall be accompanied by such records and other information relating to the child as may be prescribed by regulations made jointly by the Ministry and by the Ministry of Health and Local Government:

Provided that, before issuing any such report with respect to any child, the health authority shall give to the parent of the child not less than fourteen days' notice in writing of their intention to do so, and if within that period the parent refers to the Ministry of Health and Local Government the question whether such report should be issued, the report shall not be issued except by direction of that Ministry.

(4) If a any time after a report has been made under the last preceding sub-section the Northern Ireland Hospitals Authority are of opinion that the decision therein reported ought be reviewed, they shall notify the health authority accordingly, and thereupon the provisions of sub-sections (1) and (2) of this section as to the medical examination of a child shall apply as if the child had not previously been examined under this section; and if, after considering both the advice given by the medical officer or practitioner who has carried


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out the medical examination under this sub-section and the relevant notification of the Northern Ireland Hospitals Authority, the health authority are of opinion that the child is capable of receiving education at school, they shall cancel their original report and notify such cancellation to the Northern Ireland Hospitals Authority and the local education authority concerned.

(5) For the purpose of this section, a child shall be deemed to be suffering from a disability of mind of such a nature and extent as to make him incapable receiving education at school not only if the nature and extent of his disability are such as to make him incapable of receiving education, but also if they are such as to make it inexpedient that he should be educated in association with other children either in his own interests or in theirs."

6 Amendment of s. 49 of the principal Act

Section forty-nine of the principal Act (which relates to the duty of every local education authority to secure that the facilities for primary, secondary and further education provided for their area including adequate facilities for recreation and social and physical training) shall have effect and shall be deemed always to have had effect as if for sub-section (5) thereof there were substituted the following sub-section:

"(5) As from the first day of April, nineteen hundred and forty-eight, no grant shall made under the Youth Welfare, Physical Training and Recreation Acts (Northern Ireland), 1938 to 1947, to any local authority acting in their capacity as a local education authority to the managers of any school:

Provided that nothing in this sub-section shall operate to prevent the payment of any such grant in pursuance of the terms of an offer of grant made by the Ministry before the said date."

7 Presumption of age in proceedings to enforce attendance at school

(1) For the purposes of a prosecution of the parent of a child for an offence against section thirty-five or section thirty-seven of the principal Act (which relate respectively to failure to comply with a school attendance


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order and to failure of a child to attend regularly at school), the parent of the child shall be required to give the Court such information as he, or she, possesses regarding the date, place, and place of registration of the birth of the child; and if the parent refuses or is unable to give such information, the child shall, in so far as his having been of compulsory school age at any time is material, be presumed to have been of compulsory school age at that time.

(2) An obligation under the preceding sub-section to presume a child to have been of compulsory school age at any time shall be in substitution, so far regards the purposes for which that presumption is required to be made, for the power conferred on the court by sub-section (1) of section one hundred and one of the principal Act (which is a power to presume a person to be under, of, or over, an age alleged by any person by whom any proceedings under the principal Act are brought on his satisfying the court that, having used all reasonable diligence to obtain evidence as to the age of that person, he has been unable to do so).

8 Power to redeem certain grants payable under s. 104 of the principal Act

(1) Where by virtue of paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of section one hundred and four of the principal Act, there is payable to a local education authority out of moneys provided by Parliament any annual grant of sixty-five per cent, of the annual repayments of principal and interest due on foot of any loan or loans raised before the first day of April, nineteen hundred and forty-eight, the Ministry may from time to time, with the approval of the Ministry of Finance and the consent of the said authority, pay in redemption of such annual grant such sum as represents the redemption value of sixty-five per cent. of the principal and interest then outstanding on foot of the loan or loans to which the grant relates and accordingly, as from the date of such payment, the annual repayments falling to be made by the said authority in respect of such loan or loans shall be deemed not to be expenditure in respect of which a grant is payable under the said paragraph (a).

(2) Any sum paid by the Ministry in such redemption shall be defrayed either out of moneys provided by Parliament or, if the Ministry of Finance so directs, by means of sums charged on and issued out of the Con-


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solidated Fund. For the purposes of making any such issue out of the Consolidated Fund the Ministry of Finance may borrow any sums by means of Treasury Bills or otherwise.

(3) Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this section shall operate to create any liability to make any payment to any local education authority or other person out of moneys provided by Parliament.

9 Miscellaneous amendments

The provisions of the principal Act specified in the first column of the Schedule to this Act shall have effect subject to the amendments specified in the second column of that Schedule (being amendments which relate to minor matters and consequential amendments).

10 Expenses

Any increase attributable to the provisions of this Act in the expenses to be defrayed out of moneys provided by Parliament under section one hundred and eight of the principal Act shall be defrayed out of moneys so provided.

11 Interpretation

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, the following expressions have the meanings hereby assigned to them, that is to say:-

"health authority" means a health authority constituted under the Public Health and Local Government (Administrative Provisions) Act (Northern Ireland) 1946 (c. 19);

"the Ministry" has the meaning assigned to that expression by section one of this Act;

"the principal Act" means the Education Act (Northern Ireland) 1947;

(2) Any reference in this Act to any provision of any other Act shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be construed as a reference to that provision as amended or extended under any other enactment, including this Act.

12 Short title, construction and citation

(1) This Act may be cited as the Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act (Northern Ireland) 1950.

(2) This Act shall be construed as one with the principal Act, and that Act and this Act may be cited together as the Education Acts (Northern Ireland) 1947 and 1950.


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SCHEDULE

Section 9

MINOR AND CONSEQUENTIAL AMENDMENTS OF THE PRINCIPAL ACT (1947 c. 3)

Enactment amended and subject matter thereof.Amendment
Section thirty-eight (Enforcement of school attendance)After sub-section (3) insert -
"(3A) The power of direction conferred on a court of summary jurisdiction by the last preceding sub-section shall be exercisable also by the court before which a person is convicted of failure to comply with the requirements of a school attendance order, and where a child is brought before a court of summary jurisdiction pursuant to a direction given by virtue of this sub-section, that court shall have the like power as is conferred on it by that sub-section."
Section fifty-one sub-section (2) (Payment of travelling expenses of pupils)For the words "payment by a local education authority of the reasonable travelling expenses" substitute the words "payment by a local education authority of the whole or any part, as the authority think fit, of the reasonable travelling expenses."
11 & 12 Geo. 5. c. 67
1948 c. 11
Section ninety-four (Borrowing powers of local education authorities)In sub-section (6) for the reference to section three of the Local Authorities (Financial Provisions) Act 1921, substitute a reference to section twelve of the Local Government (Finance) Act (Northern Ireland) 1948.
24 & 25 Geo. 5. c. 22In sub-section (7) for the words "section fifteen of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1934, for the purpose mentioned in that section" substitute the words "section twelve of the Local Government (Finance) Act (Northern Ireland) 1948, for the purpose mentioned in paragraph (b) of sub-section (1) of that section."
Section one hundred and seventeen (Exclusion from principal Act of persons of unsound mind and persons detained by order of a court).For the words "has been reported under subsection (3) of section fifty-three of this Act" substitute the words "is for the time being the subject of a report in force under subsection (3) of section fifty-three of this Act."