| AdminHistory | The Attendance, Finance and General Purposes Sub-Committee was founded in April 1903 as one of the initial six standing sub-committees appointed by the Education Committee. As for all standing sub-committees, the Chairman of the Education Committee was ex-officio a member of the Attendance, Finance and General Purposes Sub-Committee.
The duties of the sub-committee were outlined at the first meeting. It was to administer the law relating to compulsory school attendance; to oversee the appointment, dismissal, salaries and work of School Attendance Officers; to decide on all reasonable cases of non-attendance and to communicate with teaching staff and parents on the issue of attendance at school; to issue notices to attend school and to issue summonses to appear before the magistrates; to administer all matters relating to Industrial Schools; to investigate the amount of public elementary school accommodation required and produce statistics of school accommodation; to make recommendations to the Education Committee on remedying the shortfall in school accommodation; to decide whether schools proposed for transfer to the Education Committee were needed; to superintend all income and expenditure and account keeping of the Education Committee and of the Council and Voluntary Schools; to make recommendations to the Education Committee concerning the raising of loans or the levy of a rate; to oversee office arrangements and expenses; and to handle matters not specially assigned to other committees.
With the passing of the Education (Provision of Meals) Act of 1906, the Education Committee took responsibility for providing school meals to underfed children attending public elementary schools, and the running of the scheme was delegated to the Attendance, Finance and General Purposes Sub-Committee, who appointed a Provision of Meals Sub-Committee. The minutes of this sub-sub-committee can be seen within the Attendance, Finance and General Purposes minute books (see BCC/1/BH/7/1/1/3 - 4).
The Education (Choice of Employment) Act, 1910, gave local authorities the power to provide assistance and advice to young people under 17 years of age concerning their future choices in employment and training. The Attendance, Finance and General Purposes Sub-Committee presented a scheme to the Education Committee for submission to the Board of Education which promoted a Central Care Committee, with a Central Juvenile Employment Exchange and Bureau, Branch Exchanges and a network of School Care Committees to advise young people leaving or who had left school up to age of 17 years. A slightly revised scheme attained the approval of the Board of Education and a Central Care Committee, comprising members of the Education Committee and representatives of Employment Associations, Teacher Associations and other bodies, was set up in July 1911 (see BCC/1/BH/7/5), although responsibility for this sub-committee was transferred to the new Continuation Schools Sub-Committee in 1918 (see BCC/1/BH/13/1), although no formal minutes have been identified.
In 1927, there was a general reorganisation of the duties of the main standing sub-committees, with the redistribution of some responsibilities between other sub-committees. This had major implications for the Attendance, Finance and General Purposes Sub-Committee which was discontinued at the end of 1927. The Government Auditor in his report on the accounts of the Education Committee 1924 - 1925 suggested that on account of the size of the Education service and the amount of public funds involved, a sub-committee should be constituted with the power to coordinate all of the financial matters of the Education Committee. This would replace the practice of sub-committees superintending their own income and expenditure and giving the Attendance, Finance and General Purposes Sub-Committee estimates for presentation to the Education Committee. It was never intended to invest coordinating financial powers onto the Attendance, Finance and General Purposes Sub-Committee by the provisions of its original constitution as it was felt that any sub-committee with coordinating powers should include a representative of all the other standing sub-committees. Consequently, the existing financial responsibilities of the Attendance, Finance and General Purposes Sub-Committee with the new co-ordinating responsibility were conferred on to the new Finance and General Purposes Sub-Committee which first met in November 1927 (see BCC/1/BH/15/1).
The remaining duties of the Attendance, Finance and General Purposes Sub-Committee were distributed to the other standing sub-committees. The provision of meals and question of elementary school attendance, accommodation and the employment of children were referred to the Elementary Education Sub-Committee (see BCC/1/BH/2/1), attendance and accommodation of children at special and secondary schools to the Special Schools and Higher Education Sub-Committees respectively (see BCC 1/BH/5/1 and BCC/1/BH/3/1) and the administration and management of Industrial Schools was transferred to the Special Schools Sub-Committee (see BCC/1/BH/5/1). |