Agenda item

The report of Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) seeks to update the Forum on the revenue funding settlement and the budget setting process for 2022-23.

Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) referred to the report which sought to update Schools Forum on the revenue funding settlement and the budget setting process for 2022-23 and highlighted the following:

·           The DfE had issued the revenue funding settlement for schools on 16 December 2021;

·           In the Autumn of 2019, the Government announced its pledge to boost schools and high needs funding over a 3-year period - £2.6 billion in 2020-21, - £4.8 billion in 2021-22 (increase by £2.2bn) and £7.1 billion in 2022-23 (increase by £2.3bn).  In addition, a further £700 million was pledged for high needs nationally in 2020-21, a further £730 million for 2021-22 and £780m for 2022-23;

·           The DfE have continued to allocate school funding on the basis of the National Funding Formula (NFF) which should see all schools benefitting from the additional funding.  Nationally, the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) shows an average increase of 3.2% in the pupil-led funding factors compared to 2021-22.  The 2022-23 year is another “soft” year with Schools Forum still retaining its role in determining the school funding allocation methodology;

·           The introduction of mandatory minimum per pupil funding levels for the 2020-21 year have been continued and the rates have increased for the 2022-23 year to £4,265 for Primary and an average of £5,576 for Secondary.  The mandatory minimum per pupil funding levels represents a step towards the introduction of a ‘hard’ formula, where national rates must be implemented without allowing for local discretion;

·           Following the (DfE) consultation in 2021, further guidance regarding a move towards a ‘hard’ formula is expected between now and 2024-25;

·           The Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG) threshold has been adjusted to ensure that all schools gain through the allocations per pupil and it is proposed that this be set at +2%;

·           The Sparsity factor has seen the greatest changes of all formula factors.  The NFF has increased the maximum sparsity values by £10,000, calculated sparsity distances based on road distances and applied a sparsity taper (making those eligible where the school has a sparsity distance 20% below the main threshold);

·           Data for pupils who are eligible for FSM6 funding is now taken from the October census rather than the previous January school census’

·           The low prior attainment data from 2019 would be used as a proxy for the assessments which would have taken place in 2020 and 2021 but didn’t due to Covid;

·           The DfE will pay business rates on behalf of all schools from 2022-23 removing the need for schools to pay their own business rates and then recover the funding;

·           There was to be a slight uplift in rates of the Pupil Premium Grant with the numbers of those eligible being taken from the October 2021 census and not the January 2022 census;

·           The provisional Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) allocation for Wiltshire was £422,409,451m which was an increase of £16,067,591m compared with 2022-23;

·           The overall uplift in ‘real’ funding for comparative purposes is 3.95%, split as Schools - 3.42%, Central – 1.52%, High Needs – 8.40%, Early Years – 1.08%;

·           Pupil numbers had grown from 62,689 in 2018-19 to 64,246 in 2022-23 although primary numbers had dipped last year and for the current year;

·           Included within the Schools Block funding of £328.593m is the amount of £1.913m allocated on the basis of pupil growth within Wiltshire;

·           In 2021-22, the DfE stipulated that the funding awarded through the Teachers Pay and Pension elements must be excluded when considering any transfers between the Schools’ Block and other Blocks. The requirement has been removed and any transfer would be based upon the Total Funding figure of £328.593m;

·           October 2021 pupil numbers have been multiplied by a unit value of £35.96 and a headcount of 64,246 for calculating the funding for the central school’s services block;

·           The DfE continue with their commitment to reviewing the High Needs NFF and a consultation is proposed and due in the first quarter of 2022-23.  The review should cover all factors of the High Needs NFF including the ‘Historic Spend’ factor and also the weightings applied to each factor;

·           The early years indicative hourly rates give some uplift in the values paid through funding;

·           The funding regulations do allow for a transfer of funding between the schools’ block and other blocks within the DSG of up to 0.5% with the agreement of Schools Forum (this had been previously agreed);

·           Local Authorities are required to submit their proposed delegated budget for schools in their areas by 21 January 2022 to the DfE who would then confirm the formula is compliant with the funding regulations.  The DfE will then confirm the budgets to academies with the LA also needing to notify maintained schools of their budget shares by the end of February 2022; and

·           It had been agreed by the maintained schools’ representatives at  the December meeting of Schools Forum that the de-delegation of services would continue in 2022-23.

An Early Years representative questioned if those smaller schools that were part of a shared site arrangement would be able to access the sparsity factor funding?  Grant Davis outlined the rules around Sparsity funding and how the calculation used individual pupil’s postcode information.  Split-site schools would be eligible for Sparsity funding where they met the funding criteria, as defined in the NFF.

The Early Years representative questioned whether this was equitable in light of schools federating or joining as the combined school may not be entitled to Sparsity funding, despite one school being rural and small.  Grant Davis confirmed that split site funding would still apply and if the combined school was eligible for Sparsity funding, then this would be paid in addition to the split site allowance.[DG1] 

Resolved:

That Schools Forum note the report.