ABSTRACT
Action programmes and the programme budget can only be laid down after alternative courses of action, different ways of achieving the goals, have been assessed, a process known as issue analysis. The programme budget relates proposed expenditure to missions, that is activities with a defined purpose, rather than setting it out in conventional subdivisions. In contrast, the programme budget concentrates on the estimated costs of specific policies by subdividing according to identifiable goals and by translating the capital cost of proposed new buildings and improvements into revenue terms. The first stage is to fix goals for the various programme categories. These goals, as specific as possible, planned to take place over a period of years with specified action designed to achieve them, form the action programme. To set out a complete, traditional, education authority budget would occupy many pages and would be highly repetitious.
