Agenda item

The report of Marie Taylor (Head of Finance – Children and Education) seeks to update Schools Forum on issues relating to the early years block for 2023-24 and the decisions that will need to be made as part of the budget setting process for 2023-24.

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 block for 2023-24 and the decisions that would need to be made as part of the budget setting process and highlighted the following:

·            The operational guidance or the Early Years block confirms that Schools Forums must be consulted on changes to local early years funding formula including agreeing central spend although the final decision rests with the LA;

·            In his 2021 Spending Review, the Chancellor announced a number of national increases to increase early years entitlements. For 2023-24 this would be £180 million and this included uplifts to the 2, 3 and 4 year old rates as well as uplifts to the disability access fund and pupil premium.  The Autumn 202 budget included an additional £20 million response to the National Living Wage increase announced for next year;

·            The provisional early years block settlement for Wiltshire for 2023-24 is £32.603 million.  The allocations for the free entitlement for 3 and 4-year olds, and for 2-year olds are based on the January 2022 census and would be updated during the 2023-24 financial year for the January 2023 census;

·            The operational guidance for early years entitlements: local authority funding of providers 2023-24 was published in December 2022 and this contained a number of key points for the local authority to include when they were funding their providers;

·            There were no major changes identified by the DfE in their operational guide although there were some relatively minor changes to the funding formula following a DfE consultation in 2022;

·            The Early Years Reference Group met on 6 January 2023 and considered a number of funding options attached as Appendix 1 to this report.  The consensus of the group was to support the LA recommendation to

i)  passport in full the 2 year old disadvantaged rate of £5.75 per entitled hour which was an increase of 6p on the previous year and

ii)    To set the 3 and 4 year old rate at £4.68 per entitled hour, an increase of 20p on the previous year whilst providing a lower than usual contingency of £19k to absorb any increases in children throughout the 2023-24 financial year

·            Rurality and deprivation had been increased slightly in line with the forecast spend for the 2022-23 year.  There was an increase for the central Early Years staffing to bear in mind the higher than inflation pay award for 2022-23 and the anticipated 4.5% award for 2023-24;

·            It was proposed to keep the Early Years Inclusion Support Fund at the same level because of the positive reserve.  As part of the preventative inclusive agenda and as part of the recovery actions for the High Needs block, an additional sum of £0.180 million was to be ringfenced from the High Needs block to support longer hours of the inclusion support fund;

·            The DAF rate of £828 per child and the Early Years Pupil Premium rate of 62p per hour would be passed on to providers; and

·            The appendix showed a worked example of the calculation of the pass-through rate showing that this was at 98.3% for Wiltshire.

An Early Years representative wished to acknowledge her thanks to the LA for passporting through that amount for early years but felt that the amount was still insufficient for 2 year olds.

Resolved: That Schools Forum

1.  Note the update on the early years block and proposals below in relation to the early years single funding formula and percentage pass through to providers:

    Local Authority preferred proposal:

i)     To increase the current rate of 2-year-old funding to £5.75 and 3 & 4-year-old funding to £4.68 per hour.

ii)    Pay inflation be added at 9% to the central early years teams reflecting the above inflation pay increase in 2022-23 and the 4.5% estimate for 2023-24 financial years

iii)  Deprivation and rurality increased to reflect current spending levels at £300,00.

2.  Note that all other funding factors remain at current 2022-23 levels or funded levels.

3.  Agree the early years block is to fully fund the Early Years Inclusion Fund at the current level and the high needs block to allocate £0.180m to increase support available in line with the SEN strategy around prevention.