To agree final budget proposals for recommendation to the cabinet member for children and families for school budgets, central school services and early years within the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) for 2021/22.

The strategic finance manager (SFM) presented the report and outlined the proposed schools budget based on the confirmed Dedicated Schools Grant allocation from the Department for Education (DfE). A copy of the slides used in the presentation are attached to the minutes of the meeting.

The SFM highlighted that the proposals were largely the same as those set out in the consultation paper shared with schools in the Autumn Term. However the final settlement was better than expected and as a result the allocations proposed an improved amount to schools. The underlying approach remained to fully fund the national funding formula levels for schools and to share any surplus funding between schools and the high needs block to support the SEN protection scheme. The Budget Working Group had been fully involved in drawing up the proposals and had endorsed the recommendations set out in the agenda papers.

The SFM had submitted a request to the Secretary of State for approval of an exceptional factor to pay additional monies to six small schools who would lose out on the consolidation of the teachers’ pay grant and teachers’ pension grant. A response was still awaited. The Budget Working Group had recommended that while use of the exceptional factor was the preferred way forward, in the event that approval was not received the £27k allocated for this factor should be distributed to all schools by increasing the per pupil amount.

An inflationary allowance of 1.5% had been received for the early years’ block which was not expected. Taken together with an adjustment for a regular underspend in part of the early years block this allowed for an improvement in the offer to the nursery education funding to settings. There was also an allocation of £10k funding to the MASH to provide support to early years settings.

The allocations of the central services block were largely as set out in the consultation paper. An allocation of £25k into SEN casework was proposed, which would help to support the implementation of the amended high needs matrix which would be discussed later on the agenda.

The high needs budget was in a slightly more positive position than it had been recently. An increase of £2.1m in the high needs block allocation had been received and the latest forecasts of the complex needs funding showed a lower demand for additional funding than had been expected. It was not yet clear whether the council would need to fund the new Beacon College so an allocation had been set aside.

The chair of the Budget Working Group thanked the SFM for his work on the proposals and also thanked members of the working group for their contributions. He highlighted that there had been a number of interesting and robust discussions on the key points during the working group meetings and that it was refreshing to have a small amount of good news to share regarding the budget proposals. The working group were happy to commend the recommendations  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14