To seek the views of the forum on local and national school funding issues, including the recommendations of the budget working group (BWG) on the following matters:

•           Herefordshire schools budget 2022/23 including schools consultation paper

•           Fair funding for all - government consultation paper 7 July 2021

•           High needs budget 2022/23

Behaviour Support Service

The principal educational psychologist attended for this item and set out the background to the proposed de-delegation for the behavioural service. Forum members heard that:

·        the service was currently operating on a pay as you go model and this was not sustainable beyond 2022;

·        two options would be set out in the consultation papers for schools, a base level service and an enhanced service;

·        the base level service would offer 113 days free at point of use for LA maintained schools, to cover individual consultation work, one-to-one interventions with children and workshops to teach skills to staff that they could take back to their schools;

·        if schools supported the higher level service this would allow for a modest expansion in the team and increase the number of free days available;

·        a set of criteria would be produced to prioritise requests for support;

·        academies would continue to purchase services on a traded basis;

·        the nurture hubs were an initiative sitting between mainstream and specialist provision and, after an initial settling in period, it was hoped they would offer outreach services that would complement the services of the behaviour team;

·        some specific projects would continue to be funded separately.

The strategic finance manager explained that de-delegation would deduct funds from LA maintained school budgets at source and that the behaviour support team was a service for which the DfE permitted de-delegation. The base level service would come at a cost of £4 per pupil while the higher level offer would costs around £5.50 per pupil. Special schools were not included but could buy in support as required. It was intended that the funding agreed through de-delegation would be matched from the high needs block.

In discussing the proposal forum members highlighted the importance of the service, particularly in light of the unknown impact of covid. The relationship with pupil referral unit services was queried and it was suggested that conversations should take place with the new head of the unit once he was in post.

Herefordshire schools budget 2022/23

The strategic finance manager gave a presentation on the projected schools budget for 22/23. The principles used were the same as in previous years, namely to fully fund the national funding formula, transfer funding to the high needs block to support the SEN protection scheme and aim to set a balanced high needs budget. If there was surplus funding the strategic finance manager proposed to add this to balances to top up the reserves.

A change in the way sparsity was calculated would result in 9 additional small primary schools benefitting from this factor. The expected growth fund allocation would cover these additional costs.

The chair of the budget working group commented that there had been a good discussion about the proposals at the recent working group meeting and that group members had recommended the draft consultation paper. The proposals regarding the de-delegation for behaviour support had been added after that meeting and would be discussed at the next meeting.

It was noted that the proposals on the high needs budget were provisional and would be finalised by March 2022. Any costs arising from the potential closure of the sixth form provision at Westfield special school would be considered once that decision had been taken. The projected outturn for the current financial year for the high needs budget was a £144k overspend. 

Response to DfE consultation paper

The strategic finance manager explained that the introduction of the national funding formula had been positive for Herefordshire schools. The county was now the highest funded of its eleven statistical neighbours compared to 7^th out of 11 ten years earlier. This improvement was largely due to the national funding formula.

The DfE consultation paper set out next stages of the journey to a nationally set funding formula. The strategic finance manager ran through the proposed Herefordshire response to the consultation and noted that the council would also contribute to the collective response from the f40 group.

Forum members discussed the proposed response. It was highlighted that the national funding formula used an area cost adjustment to reflect labour market costs across the country but outside of London teachers were on national pay scales. There were concerns that it was unfair to apply an uplift to some local authorities.

The strategic finance manager explained that most local authorities did not receive any uplift from the area cost adjustment and that most authorities in London now received less funding under the national funding formula. The area cost adjustment was an attempt to deal with a complex national picture by objective means. The strategic finance manager offered to discuss the matter further after the meeting.

It was proposed that following these discussions the response to the DfE be amended to include forum member’s concerns about the use of an area cost adjustment for areas outside of London, with the final text to be agreed by the vice chairperson who was chair of the forum meeting on this occasion.

It was resolved that:

a)     The initial budget proposals for 2022/23 for schools and high needs be approved for consultation with schools during the autumn term; and

b)     The Budget Working group’s proposed response to the DfE consultation paper be approved for submission by the due date of 30 September, subject to further discussions regarding the Area Cost Adjustment with the final text to be agreed by the vice-chairperson.