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 put to the forum in the agenda papers.

It was resolved that:

The local implementation of the National Funding Formula (NFF) for 2021/22 as set out in the consultation document and recommendation (a) – (k) as below, be approved for recommendation to the Cabinet member for children and families as follows;

(a)  The final school funding values be agreed, subject to a minimum total funding per pupil of £4,180 for primary schools and £5,415 for secondary schools, including the Minimum Funding Guarantee at 2% as follows:

(b) Growth funding for basic need expansion in the Golden Valley be agreed at a total cost of £235k, as follows;

(i)            Growth funding for basic need expansion at Kingstone High School, £75,715 for an additional 45 planned pupils for the summer term 2021

(ii)          Growth funding be finalised for basic need expansion at Fairfield High School, £55,525 for an additional 33 planned pupils for the summer term 2021

(iii)         Growth funding be finalised for basic need expansion at Kingstone High School, £77,070 for an additional 30 planned pupils in September 2021

(iv)         Growth funding be finalised for basic need expansion at Fairfield High School, £25,690 for an additional 10 planned pupils in September 2021

(c) Transfer to high needs block to support the SEN protection scheme, £300k

(d) Additional £15 per pupil for primary and secondary schools at a cost of £117,158

(e) That any minor adjustments to the schools budget up to £5k, in order to comply with DfE submission requirements, be made to the funding allocated to the growth fund in order to provide a contingency.

(f) That the central services block be allocated as follows

(i)            Statutory retained duties £369k

(ii)          Schools Forum administration costs £15k

(iii)         School admission costs £125k

(iv)         National licences for schools £140k

(v)          Additional funding for statutory duties for SEN casework team £25k

(vi)         transfer SACRE funding to statutory duties £5k

(vii)        transfer to the high needs block £75k

(g) That local authority maintained school members, approve the de-delegation of funding in 2021/22, and advise the Cabinet member for children’s and families for information, as follows

(i)            trade union facilities for primary schools only be approved at £2.75 per pupil

(ii)          school budgeting software licence at £405 per school

(iii)         ethnic minority support at £1.12 per pupil plus £6.60 per Ever-6 Free school  meals and £107 per English as an Additional Language first year pupil

(iv)         school meals entitlement assessment at £1.25 per primary pupil and £0.94 per secondary pupil (Proposal A) for local authority schools           

(v)          trade union facilities for secondary schools only be provided for through a Service Level Agreement at £2.75 per pupil

(vi)         that the statutory education services for non-academy schools be reduced by  50p per pupil and charged at £12 per pupil

(h) The early years funding formula for Herefordshire providers from April 2021 be as follows;

(i)            Two year olds: £5.36 per hour            

(ii)          Three and four year olds: £4.08 per hour + £0.35 per hour for Early Years Pupil Premium eligible children + a rurality supplement per provider of £52 per week (pro-rata for providers that deliver less than 100 hours per week) paid for 38 weeks per year

(iii)         Early years central expenditure be increased by 1.5% inflation

(iv)         the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub be supported to help and support to early years settings at a cost of £10,000 per annum

(j) to remove the reception uplift factor as proposed in the consultation paper

(k) to reduce the maximum percentage for permitted carry forward of school balances to 20% of the school allocation (including early years funding) from April 2021

(l) In the event that approval is not received the basic entitlement per primary and secondary pupil be increased by £2 a pupil and the growth fund allocation in recommendation (b) be reduced to £234k.

(NB restrictions were applied to voting as follows:

Only representatives of LA maintained schools, academies and early years providers were eligible to vote on recommendations (a) to (f) and (h) to (l).

Only representatives of LA maintained schools were eligible to vote on recommendation (g). This was further restricted to LA primary school representatives for part (i) and LA secondary school representatives for part (v).)

Decision by Secretary of State

Following the meeting it was confirmed that the request to include the exceptional factor listed as item 37 in part (a) of the decision had been rejected. The contingency set out in part (l) of the decision will therefore be taken forward.