To approve school forum’s recommended budget proposals for school budgets, central school services and early years within the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) for 2023/24.

 

Dedicated Schools Grant funding for the schools block in 2023/24 is £123.2m, which is an increase of £1.3m for primary pupils, £2.1m for secondary pupils, a total of £3.4m after consolidation of the £3.3m supplementary grant from 2022-23. In addition the government have announced a further grant for schools valued at £5.15m (£4.15m for mainstream schools and £1m for high needs). The funding for high needs and early years block are provisional and are both subject to final adjustments for pupil numbers and commissioned places. The school funding values and formula calculations are in accordance with the national school funding formula as set by government. The £0.616m is to be transferred to the high needs block for 2023/24 to continue the SEN protection scheme.

 

 

 

That:

Due to insufficient funding within the Dedicated Schools Grant the National Funding Formula(NFF) factors for 2023/24 be reduced by 1% as included in the recommendations 1. (a) – (n) as below, be approved as follows;

 

1.       The final school funding values be agreed, subject to a minimum total funding per pupil of £4,405 for primary schools and £5,715 for secondary schools, including the Minimum Funding Guarantee at 0.5% as follows:

(a)   Basic entitlement per pupil Primary £3,361, basic entitlement per secondary pupil Key Stage 3 £4,738 and basic entitlement per secondary pupil Key Stage 4 £5,340

 

(b)    Deprivation per free school meal Primary £475.50 Deprivation per free school meal Secondary £475.50

(c)   Deprivation per ever-6 free school meal Primary £697.95, Deprivation per ever-6 free school meal Secondary £1,019.70

 

(d) Socio-economic deprivation Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI)

 

(i)             Band A Primary £663.30 Secondary £920.70

(ii)            Band B Primary £504.90 Secondary £722.70

(iii)           Band C Primary £475.20 Secondary £673.20

(iv)           Band D Primary £435.60 Secondary £613.80

(v)            Band E Primary £277.20 Secondary £440.55

(vi)           Band F Primary £227.70 Secondary £331.65

(vii)          Band G Primary £0 Secondary £0

 

(e) Low prior attainment per pupil Primary £1,143.45, per pupil Secondary £1,732.50

 

(f) Lump Sum Primary £126,720, Secondary £126,720

 

(g) Primary sparsity, on NFF taper basis, over 2 miles and less than an average year group size of 21.4 pupils Primary £56,018.50

 

(h) Secondary sparsity, on NFF taper basis, over 3 miles and less than an average year group size of 120 pupils Secondary £81,081 using the updated DfE actual road distance measure

 

(i) English as additional language (EAL3) per primary pupil Primary £574.20 English as additional language per secondary pupil Secondary £1,549.35

 

(j) Mobility Primary £935.55 Mobility Secondary £1,346.40

 

(l) PFI contract Secondary £336,104

 

(m) Exceptional premises factor – Eastnor rent Primary £9,556

(n) Business rates: At the indicative cost of £1,292,043 as determined by the Education and Skills Funding Agency and 2021/22 funding in arrears for Marlbrook primary school of £21,964.77

 

2.     Additional growth funding of £187,250 for 2023/24 be approved as follows;

(a) Growth funding for basic need expansion at Kingstone High School, £140,437.50 (summer term £56,700, autumn & spring £83,737.50) for the financial year 2023/24 for an additional 30 planned pupils

 

(b) Growth funding for basic need expansion at Fairfield High School, £46,812.50 (summer term £18,900, autumn & spring £27,912.50) for the financial year 2023/24 for an additional 10 planned pupils

 

3. Transfer to high needs block to support the SEN protection scheme, £616,000 be approved by  Schools Forum and to set the school funding cap at £170 x Number on Roll for 2023/24 allowing £50,000 growth in 2023-24 subject to further consideration of the funding cap at the March meeting of Schools Forum.

 

4. That prior to submission to the DfE, any minor adjustments to the schools budget up to £5k required to comply with the regulations, be made to the funding allocated to the growth fund to provide a contingency.

 

5. That the Cabinet Member for Children’s and Families be advised for information, that Schools Forum approved an inflationary increase for the central support services funding for 2023/24, and advise the Cabinet member for children’s and families for information, as follows

 

(a) Statutory retained duties £387k

(b) Schools Forum administration costs £19.5k

(c) School admission costs £135.6k

(d) National licences for schools £153k

(e) Additional funding for statutory duties for SEN casework team £27k

(f) SACRE funding for statutory duties £8,120

(g) Transfer to the high needs block £80k

 

6. That the Cabinet Member for Children’s and Families be advised for information, that local authority maintained school members, approve an increase of 1.9% in the de-delegation of funding in 2023/24, and advise the Cabinet member for children’s and families for information, as follows

 

(a) trade union facilities for primary schools only be approved at £2.65 per pupil

(b) trade union facilities for secondary schools only be provided for through a Service Level Agreement at £2.65 per pupil

(c) school budgeting software licence at £422.89 per school

(d) ethnic minority support at £1.17 per pupil plus £6.93 per Ever-6 Free school meals and £36.68 per English as an Additional Language three years (EAL3)

(e) school meals entitlement assessment at £1.31 per primary pupil and £0.99 per secondary pupil (for local authority schools)

(f) behaviour support service at £4.08 per pupil to provide £38,300 income

(g) school improvement services be newly de-delegated at £6 per pupil

(h) contingencies be newly de-delegated at £1 per pupil

(i) the statutory education services for non-academy schools be charged at £12.48 per pupil

 

 

 

7. The early years funding formula for Herefordshire providers from April 2023 be increased by the inflationary increase provided by DfE and approved as follows;

 

(a) Two year olds: £5.63 per hour

(b) Three and four year olds: £4.48 per hour + a deprivation supplement of £0.38 per hour for Early Years Pupil Premium eligible children + a rurality supplement per provider of £57 per week (pro-rata for providers that deliver less than 100 hours per week) paid for 38 weeks per year

(c) Early years central expenditure be increased by 5.4% inflation £393,000 for NEF contract payments, Early years consultants and MASH support for early years settings.

 

8. The Schools Budget be approved as follows;

(a). A balanced schools budget be approved for 2023/24; and

(b). the unusable reserve for the DSG deficit reserves of £275,319 be carried forward to financial year 2024/25 adjusted by any under or overspend in DSG at year end in March 2023.

 

1.     Schools Forum agreed in October 2017 to the strategy to implement the NFF from 2018/19. However due to national economic pressures the announced DSG funding does not provide sufficient funding to pass through to schools the full National Funding Formula entitlement.  In addition to the council’s preferred option two alternatives have been developed for consideration by the Budget Working Group (BWG) on 6 January 2023, and their recommendations will be published by the BWG in a supplementary report to Schools Forum for consideration on 13 January.