To review the Dedicated Schools Grant high needs budget for 2019/20 and recommend to the cabinet member children and families any necessary adjustments in the Pupil Referral Service charges to schools and SEN support services to schools.

The report sets out the expected financial position for Herefordshire high needs budgets and expenditure for the three years from 2019/20. Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) for 2020/21 onwards will be determined by government following the Comprehensive Spending Review. This report recommends a number of actions to ensure that the high needs funding allocation is spent as effectively as possible whilst recognising the absolute duty to ensure that pupils’ needs are met as required by Section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014. The views of schools forum have been sought on the proposed budget plan prior to seeking cabinet member approval. The available high needs budget for 2019/20 will be set at £13.4m after deductions passported directly to academies and post-16 providers by the Education and Skills Funding Agency. This allows for flexibility to meet additional unexpected costs and a prudent increase in DSG balances in the short term. 

That:

(a)        the Pupil Referral Unit be funded as set out below

(i)            80 places for the period April 2019 to August 2019 comprising 50 places for permanently excluded pupils and 30 discretionary managed move/ intervention places

(ii)          50 places for new and existing permanently excluded pupils for the period September 2019 to March 2020 and thereafter 50 places annually

(iii)         15 places for discretionary managed move/intervention for existing pupils for the  period September 2019 to August 2020

(iv)         15 discretionary intervention places  for new pupils to be charged at cost to the school purchasing the place until August 2020 and thereafter 30 discretionary places annually to be charged at cost to the school purchasing the place

(v)          savings on a phased basis of £30,000 in 2019/20, a further £100,000 in 2020/21 and a final £70,000 in 2021/22 be approved

(vi)         An intervention fund be approved on a phased basis of £50,000 from September 2019 in 2019/20, £125,000 in 2020/21 and £175,000 in 2021/22 for use by the In-year fair access panel, or similar, to support schools with meeting the needs of students following consultation with the Herefordshire Association of Secondary Headteachers (HASH)

(vii)        An increase of £1,000 in the PRU top-up fee to £6,700 for all students from September 2019

(b)       budget efficiencies and increased charges to schools in the SEN support services to a total of £110,000 be approved from April 2019, a further budget efficiency of £40,000 from April 2020 and a final budget efficiency of £50,000 in April 2021;

(c)       an income budget of £100,000 be set for the high needs contingency in expectation of an equivalent saving in Complex Need  Funding for 2019/20; and

(d)       the high needs budget including the amendments as above be approved as set out in Appendix 1

1.         No amendments to the high needs top-up tariffs are proposed. Proposals for significant changes in the operation of the Pupil Referral Service are currently being developed in conjunction with secondary schools. These changes will focus Dedicated Schools Grant high needs block spending on meeting the council’s statutory responsibility for permanently excluded pupils and provide for school spending to be targeted to meet the costs of discretionary intervention places. Once finalised these new proposals will be phased in from September 2019. Some changes are proposed to the centrally provided SEN support services by re-modelling the services to either provide the support services more efficiently or inviting schools to purchase services directly.