Agenda item

The Forum were presented with a report which updated them on school funding and sought comments on the final proposals from the Council to the 2017-18 Schools Block element of the Schools Budget.

Provisional funding information had been available at the Schools Forum meeting on the 8 December 2016 as it had been important to make some early decisions so that budget planning could be suitably progressed so the that the council would be able to meet the DfE deadline of 20 January 2017 for Local Authorities to submit the actual Funding Formula and units of resource that would be used in 2017/18.

The key points that were discussed were:

• The cost of additional pupils would be £0.324m less than previously expected as the growth at the new Warfield Woodhurst site had been included twice
• Rather than applying funding for pupil characteristics data such as deprivation and low prior attainment measures based on the reduced numbers included on the DfE dataset, to ensure the most vulnerable pupils continued to receive priority funding, allocations would be increased by the same 2.5% increase as being experienced in the number of pupils on roll. This would amount to a cost of £0.108m.
• The national business rate revaluation had been concluded and the details of the charging and transitional funding arrangements had been confirmed which resulted in an additional cost pressure of £0.122m.
• The community use of sport centres at Edgbarrow and Sandhurst schools had been reviewed by the council and would be transferred to the schools which had resulted in a £0.015m saving.
• The costs incurred against de-delegated budgets have been reviewed and highlighted areas where additional funding was required. Both maternity leave absence and premature retirement costs were increasing and therefore budget additions of £0.015m and £0.010m respectively were proposed.
• In year growth allowances paid to schools was forecast to over spend by £0.1m in the current year with the forecast for next year calculated at a pressure of £0.129m.
• Centralised copyright licenses was also forecast to overspend by £0.004m in the current year, as these costs were based on pupil numbers the overspend in 2017/18 was forecast to further increase from additional pupils to £0.006m.
• The report indicated a budget shortfall of £0.180m that would need to be financed from a one-off allocation from the surplus balance on the Schools Budget.

RESOLVED that the Forum Members AGREED the following recommendations:

As decision maker:

1. that the arrangements in place for the administration of central government grants are appropriate (paragraph 6.29);

2. the budget amounts for each of the services centrally managed by the council and funded from the School Block DSG as set out in Annex 2 (paragraph 6.31);

RESOLVED that the Forum Members AGREED in its role as the representative body of schools and other providers of education and childcare, the Forum REQUESTED that the Executive Member AGREE the following decisions for the 2017-18 Schools Budget:

1. that the budget for Schools Block DSG is reset to £66.395m and other Schools Block related grants reset to anticipated 2017-18 amounts (paragraphs 6.7 and 6.25);

2. to maintain appropriate funding allocations for the most vulnerable pupils, relevant budget allocations are  increased by 2.5%, the same increase as pupil numbers (paragraph 6.13);

3. the net £1.932m of budget adjustments are allocated to the budget areas set out in Table 1 as follows:

a. £1.280m into delegated school budgets (column 1);

b. £0.025m into ‘de-delegated’ school budgets (column 2);

c. £0.627m into centrally managed budgets (column 3);

4. the £0.180m shortfall in funding is financed by a one-off allocation from the general balances of the Schools Budget (paragraph 6.24);

5. that the DfE pro forma template of the 2017-18 BF Funding Formula for Schools as set out in Annex 3 be submitted for the 20 January deadline (paragraph 6.23).

RESOLVED that the Forum Members NOTED:

1. that proposals in respect of the Early Years and High Needs Block elements of the Schools Block will be presented to the Forum in March (paragraph 6.4).

2. the cost pressures that schools are likely to need to finance from within existing resources, estimated at around 2% (paragraph 6.26).