Agenda item

To update the Forum on the 2014-15 forecast budget monitoring position for the Schools Budget, to be aware of key issues and management actions being taken.

The Forum were updated on the 2014-15 forecast budget monitoring position for the Schools Budget, to be aware of key issues and management actions being taken.

The first section of the report confirmed the current budget allocation, which included a number of allocations from earmarked reserves that had previously been agreed by the Forum. It also confirmed one new change; a further adjustment to the Early Years Block Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) by the Department for Education (DfE) that increased income by £0.098m which would be used to finance increased numbers of children taking up early years education and childcare.

The second section of the report provided an update on forecast expenditure compared to budget. The July Forum meeting was informed of a forecast over spending of £0.333m which had now increased to £0.762m. Whilst further savings had been identified, spending on high needs pupils had again increased and was forecast to over spend by £1.093m. The reasons for the overspend were mainly attributable to a £0.282m reduction in funding from the DfE and an additional 22 students staying on at a cost of £0.949m.

In response to a question relating to whether the over spend should have been predicted earlier, it was confirmed that the increase mainly related to post-16 pupils and this only became a Local Authority funding responsibility in August 2013. A costing model had been developed, and this was being refined but the educational choices of students were sometimes difficult to predict.

The final section of the report set out the anticipated impact from the over spending in 2015-16. All of the £0.691m accumulated reserves were likely to be required to finance the 2014-15 over spend but there was an underlying cost increase that was expected to be at least £1m. It would not be possible to finance this from the High Needs DSG Block income and therefore it was likely that at least £1m of the £1.5m additional funding to be received through the Fairer Funding for Schools initiative would need to be used for high needs pupils rather than being included in delegated school budgets.

The long term strategy for cost reduction remained to develop addition places within the Borough. The Forum had previously been advised that a 56 place Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) unit would be opened on a phased basis in Eastern Road from September 2015. It was also confirmed that the proposed Education Village development at Blue Mountain would also include specific new provision for high needs pupils.

The Forum NOTED:

1. the budget virements processed to date (paragraphs 5.2 to 5.4);

2. the budget variances being forecast on the 2014-15 Schools Budget that in total aggregate to a net over spending of £0.762m, (paragraph 5.10);

3. that insufficient accumulated balances were available to cover the estimated over spending and that a deficit of £0.071m was forecast to be carried forward into 2015-16 and would need to be financed from new year grant income (paragraph 5.10);

4. the likelihood that at least £1m of the £1.5m additional funds from the Fairer Funding for Schools in 2015-16 initiative would need to be used to finance increased costs supporting High Needs pupils rather than going into delegated school budgets (paragraph 5.16).