Agenda item

To receive a report to update members of the Schools Forum on the Schools Budget for 2010-11 and to seek their views.

The Head of Finance, Performance and Resources introduced the report on local authority proposals for the 2010-2011 Schools Budget. He told the Forum that these were the final budget proposals, and that any recommendations from the Forum would go to the Executive Member for Education for final decisions.

There had been some changes to the budget proposals since the Forum meeting in January to reflect more up to date data. The estimated number of pupils had increased by 27 for the next school year increasing grant income through the DSG by £136,000. The changes to budget proposals related to funding the £60,000 overspend from 2009-10,  budget allocations based on pupil numbers had reduced by £126,000 while budget allocations based on non-pupil numbers had increased by £37,000 and Early Years provisions reduced by £18,000. The subsidy for primary school meals contract was reduced by £10,000 to reflect increased meal take-up, an additional £2,000 had been allocated to the start up costs for new primary school planned Jennett’s Park school, and support for statemented children, with an increase of three pupils, showed a cost increase of £9,000.

A new item had been added to the budget - £3,000 for the cost of secondary school appeals in voluntary aided schools. SEN costs for out of borough placements were now £46,000 higher, and an increase in the school contingency fund of £78,000 was also proposed. There was also a new item of additional rental income amounting to £5,000.

This left £60,000 unallocated for distribution to schools, and it was proposed that £20,000 of this be used to support reactive school building maintenance, and £40,000 through a budget strategy basis of 85% by pupil numbers and 15% as an equal lump sum amount per school.

The Head of Finance, Performance and Resources closed his presentation by telling the Forum that in the future there would be a much tougher financial environment in education and that a number of future cost pressures were emerging .

Following discussion, the Forum AGREED

1.                  That the Schools Forum RECOMMEND to the Executive Member for Education that the 2010-11 Schools Budget include:

                     i.                  the unavoidable budget pressures as set out in the shaded column of Annex B calculated at £2.051m;

                   ii.                  the economies and new budget developments as set out in the shaded column of Annex C calculated at £0.980m, which included the new proposal to allocate £0.020m to schools in respect of reactive maintenance and the remaining £0.040m balance of unallocated funds to schools, 85% based on pupil numbers and 15% via a fixed lump sum amount (paragraph 5.24);

                  iii.                  funding secondary schools for deprivation through weighted pupil eligibility to free school meals reverts to using the census data available at the January prior to the commencement of the relevant financial year (paragraph 5.17);

                 iv.                  that the fee payable to Early Years providers of the free entitlement to education and childcare is increased by 3.6% at April 2010, equivalent to the average increase in per pupil funding for statutory aged pupils in maintained schools (paragraph 5.22);

2.         That the Schools Forum AGREED the following decisions that it was solely responsible for:

                     i.                  that the school specific contingency for 2010-11 be set at £0.308m and that a new specific contingency of £0.145m be set aside for providers of early years education and childcare (paragraph 5.26 (1), Table 4);

                   ii.                  That as a result of these budget proposals, the Central Expenditure Limit be exceeded by £0.375m (paragraph 5.26 (2));

                  iii.                  That the Minimum Funding Guarantee payment due to Brakenhale Secondary School be fully removed by the end of the 2012-13 financial year with the resultant savings redistributed within the Schools Budget (paragraph 5.26 (3);

                 iv.                  That £0.036m be added to the combined services budget to support Education Health Partnerships and families subject to domestic abuse (paragraph 5.26 (4).

3.         That the Schools Forum NOTED the resultant budget for each service as set out in Annex D.