Marie Taylor (Head of Finance – Children and
Education) referred to the report which sought to update Schools
Forum on issues related to the early years, central school services
and high needs blocks for 2022-23 and the decisions that will need
to be made as part of the budget setting process for the 2022-23
financial year and highlighted the
following:
- Early years - In line with previous years, limited information
for Wiltshire was available as yet in relation to early years
funding. In the 2021 Spending Review
the Chancellor announced national funding increases of £160m,
£180m and £170m for the next three years. It had also been announced that
i)
A 30% increase in the Disability Access Fund which
was up £185 to £800 per annum per eligible
child.
ii)
An increase of £40 to £342 for the early
years Pupil Premium
iii)
A 2 year old funding increase of £0.21p per
hour so rates would rise to £5.69 per hour subject to
discussions at the next meeting of the Early Years reference group
in January
iv)
The 3 and 4 year old funding increase was yet to be
confirmed but it was anticipated to be in the region of
£0.16p so perhaps rising to £4.41 per hour.
- Settings had been advised not to make any planning decisions
until the allocations for Wiltshire had been received later in
December;
- The provisional allocations for the high needs block were an
uplift of 8.39% and 6.07% for the central block;
- The DfE have been reducing historic commitments. Wiltshire has been allocated £0.294m for historic commitments based on those
commitments agreed as eligible in 2021-22 reduced by 20% of
£0.073m;
- The central schools services block allocates funding to the LA
to carry out central functions on behalf of pupils of maintained
schools and academies. Schools Forum
approval was required on a line by line basis for the group of
services which are funded from the central schools’
block. An assumed level of inflation
had been applied to the central copyright licences in section
A;
- For Section B it was proposed to apply salary inflation of 2% to
reflect the 2% pay award for staff which was expected next
year;
- For Section C historic commitments it was proposed to follow
factors for 2022-23. It was proposed to
keep the funding for CiC Personal
Education Plans at the same level, apply a level of inflation to
the Child Protection in Schools Advisers and reduce the amount
committed to prudential
borrowing;
- There would be a report later in the meeting relating to the DfE
consultation around the removal of the School Improvement Grant
amount and the School Funding working group had held an
extraordinary meeting in September to formulate a response on
behalf of School Forum.
Assuming the proposed budget is accepted
by Schools Forum, an amount of £0.219m unallocated CSSB was
estimated as available and could be used as in previous years, to
transfer to fund high needs pressures or, in light of the proposed
reduction and removal of the school improvement brokerage and
monitoring grant, an increased allocation could be used by the
local authority to support any school requiring
support;
- High needs would hopefully see an 8% increase; however the high
needs formula was updated to our detriment due to the lower numbers
of learners with statements in 2017-18 than in more recent
years. Whist the additional funding of
an additional £4.825 announcement in July is most welcome it
does not fully address the magnitude of the cumulative pressures
from previous financial years nor does
it fully address the anticipated pressure for the 2021-22 financial
year for Wiltshire;
- The SEN review was now promised in the first quarter
of 2022. It was hoped that a national resolution could be found to
ensure funding levels better reflect local demands;
- An
early assessment of the pressures on the high needs block for
2022-23 was shared and highlighted that it was not possible to
fully fund the pressures from within the high needs
block. The high needs block allocation
for 2021-22 was £62.354 million with a transfer from the
central block surplus of £0.219 million and a potential
transfer from school’s block of 0.5% of £1.580 million
plus a transfer of the excess growth fund which would still see a
funding shortfall; and
- The DfE management plan and an update from the second informal
meeting would be discussed at the January Forum
meeting.
Resolved:
That Schools Forum
1.
Note the early years
information in the report and that the budget for early years will
be considered in full at the January 2022
meeting.
2.
Note the central services information
in the report and the required decisions in relation to the central
school’s block budget for 2022-23 and agree the decisions in
principle in advance of setting the Schools budget in January
2022.
i)
Section A – consult
only
ii)
Section B – approve on a
line-by-line basis (including a potential transfer to the high
needs block or, pending the local consultation additional DSG
funding to support school improvement.)
iii)
Section C – approve on a
line-by-line basis
3. Note that any
updates around the DfE consultation to
remove the school improvement monitoring and brokering grant will
be brought to the January 2022 meeting for update and
decision.
4. Note the
pressures on the high needs block for 2022-23 and the potential
options to reduce the shortfall against high needs budgets
including agreeing a transfer from Schools Block to balance the
high needs pressures. This will be considered in full at the
January 2022 meeting alongside the recovery plan.
That Schools Forum note the report and consider
the questions raised in the report.