Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support
Manager) referred to the report which sought ‘in
principle’ decisions from Schools Forum with regards to the
Wiltshire funding formula for the 2022-23 year and highlighted the
following:
- Prior to the funding settlement being announced in
mid December, a number of ‘in
principle’ decisions were sought to help with the school
budget preparations. The 2022-23 year
would be year 3 of the Governments pledge to boost schools funding,
with an increase of £2.3 billion into the overall Schools
block compared to the 2021-22 year;
- The Schools block DSG had been awarded an increase of
3.2% compared to the 2021-22 year. It
would be another ‘soft’ year with Schools Forum still
retaining its role in determining the school funding allocation
methodology. The DfE had confirmed
their intention to move to a ‘hard’ NFF but had not
confirmed the timeline as yet;
- The DfE had announced the indicative DSG block
allocations based on the October 2020 census and there was uplift
of funding across the blocks (except for the early years block
which allocations had yet to be announced);
- The key changes for the 2022-23 budget were as
follows:
- Overall, the DfE’s School funding budget is set
to increase by 3.2%
- Core pupil-led funding factors and the lump sum to
increase by 3%
- The ‘Minimum per pupil funding level’ to
increase by 2%
- The Free School Meals factor (for the costs of
providing a meal for eligible pupils) to increase by 2%
- Every school to receive at least 2% more funding per
pupil, (setting the MFG at +2%)
- Changes to Sparsity calculations and funding
allocations
- Using the previous October census for calculating
Deprivation FSM6 funding rather than the previous January census
(reducing the lag)
- The only mandatory factor for 2022-23 would be the
application of the minimum per pupil funding levels, being
£4,265 and £5,525 in Primary and Secondary
respectively;
- The final formula would be presented at Schools Forum
in January 2022 when the final allocations have been confirmed and
subsequently to the full Council for political ratification and
approval in February 2022. Wiltshire
would be fully funded on the basis of the NFF values and therefore
would be in a position to fund schools fully using NFF
values;
- The key funding decisions to be taken by Schools
Forum for the 2022-23 year would include:
- To apply all NFF factors in full
- To apply the NFF sparsity values and
methodology
- To set the Minimum Funding Guarantee at +2.00% (in
line with NFF)
- To agree the de-delegation arrangements for
maintained schools
- To transfer 0.5% of the Schools Block to the High
Needs Block
- Following a consultation regarding Sparsity funding,
in support of small and rural schools, the DfE had increased the
level of support through the sparsity factor. In 2021-22, 28 primary and 2 secondary schools had been eligible
for sparsity funding and for 2022-23 under the new methodology this
would rise to 50 primary and 3 secondary schools – a total of
£1.7 million which was quite a significant increase which
equated to less than 1% of the school’s block funding;
and
- Initial modelling of the Schools Block demonstrates
that the NFF is affordable, based upon the October 2020 census and
therefore the full NFF could be implemented.
The
Salisbury Diocesan representative commented that the sparsity
funding should be fully utilised for Wiltshire’s small rural
schools and the new methodology would mean that 1 in 4 schools will
get a boost of funding that would benefit the children and staff in
those schools.
Resolved:
That Schools Forum agree
the following ‘in principle’
decisions for the formula factors to enable school budgets to be
prepared ready for the 20 January 2022
meeting.
a. To apply all NFF factors in
full
b. To apply the NFF sparsity values and methodology
c. To set the Minimum Funding Guarantee
at +2.00% (in line with NFF).