Agenda item

The report of Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) seeks to update the Forum on issues relating to the schools delegated budget for 2022-23 and the decisions that will need to be made as part of the budget setting process for 2022-23.  The report is to follow.

Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) referred to the report which sought to update Schools Forum on issues relating to the schools delegated budget for 2022-23 and the decisions that would need to be made as part of the budget setting process and highlighted the following:

·         The DfE had has allocated a schools’ block quantum to Wiltshire of £328.593m – this included funding of £1.913 million for the growth fund, based on the growth formula;

·         The changes to the Sparsity factor were shared with Schools Forum in October 2021 and an ‘in principle’ decision was agreed to implement the NFF methodology and funding values;

·         Modelling work has been prepared to calculate individual school budgets based on the proposed formula which was broadly similar to the formula for 2021-22 but the following changes should be noted:

Ø  An increase in Pupil and School led funding values of 3%

Ø  Minimum Funding Guarantee to be set between 0.5% and 2.0% to ensure all schools see a gain in funding on their pupil led funding (2% is proposed for 2022-23)

Ø  Maximum Sparsity funding being increased by £10,000 in both Primary and Secondary schools to £55,000 and £80,000 respectively to support small and rural schools

Ø  Sparsity distances to be measured using road distances rather than ‘as the crow flies’ and applying a distance taper for schools within 20% of the distance threshold

Ø  Increases in the minimum per pupil funding levels (MPPFL) to £4,265 and £5,525 in primary and secondary schools

·         Initial modelling suggests that the NFF is fully affordable for all schools in Wiltshire;

·         Since the introduction of the NFF the intention has been to try and move to replicate the formula in the ‘soft’ years.  Where the NFF values could not be afforded, the Free School Meal Ever6 (FSM6) factor was compromised to ensure the other factors were affordable – for the last three years the formula had been fully affordable;

·         Growth allocations for 2022-23 are based upon pupil growth data from the October 2021 census and the October 2020 census.  Criteria for growth was agreed at the December 2021 meeting of the Forum.  £1,913m was allocated from the DfE for the 2022-23 growth fund.  The growth of pupils was 340.5 for Primary and 633.5 for Secondary;

·         There were no plans to open any new schools in the 2022-23 year.  The growth fund supports new primary and secondary schools with diseconomy costs for the first 7 years or until the school is full.  The Basic Need Class Expansion for additional classes is still to be confirmed with colleagues in the School places team for the 2022-23 academic year.  The Infant Class Size increases have been confirmed for 2021-22 with four schools being funded through this factor.  Any surplus or deficit in the Growth Fund will form part of the overall DSG surplus or deficit balance;

·         Following the additional funding pledge, the DfE are seeking to ensure that all schools see an uplift in their calculated per pupil funding and have therefore proposed that the Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG) is set at a positive figure of between 0.5% and 2.0%.  Setting a positive MFG of 2% is fully affordable and will ensure that all schools see an uplift in their ‘per pupil’ funding of at least 2%. The cost to the formula in 2022-23 is less than £0.155m, subject to decisions taken by the Forum later in the meeting;

·         The DfE’s consultation in the 2021-22 year, introduced a number of changes to the criteria for the NFF sparsity factor. Schools Forum considered a report in 2021-22 which set out the implications of these changes for Wiltshire and agreed to mirror the NFF within the Wiltshire formula for 2022-23;

·         As part of the DfE’s proposals to support small and rural schools, the maximum sparsity value for primary schools was increased to £55,000 for Primary and £80,000 for Secondary schools.  This would mean that 62 Primary and 4 Secondary schools would be eligible for £2,378,451 of funding;

·         The thresholds of the minimum per pupil funding levels (MPPFL) in primary and secondary schools for 2022-23 are £4,265 and £5,525 for primary and secondary respectively. These values include the previous Teachers Pay and Pension Grants which were incorporated into the
AWPU funding values from 2021-22; and

·         The overall funding allocated through the MPPFL is £4.953m in 2022-23, a decrease of £1.623m on the 2021-22 figure of £6.576m.

The Salisbury Diocesan representative commented that whilst the additional sparsity funding was welcome it was of note that sparsity funding was taken account of in MPPFL’s and schools would see an increase in sparsity and this may impact upon a schools eligibility for any MPPFL funding.  The Sparsity funding will be a real boost for a number of Wiltshire’s small rural schools which are also suffering from the falling birth rate too. 

Grant Davis agreed that sparsity fund is well received but highlighted that the that the majority of those schools that receive the MPPFL uplift are larger schools and that most smaller schools were not eligible for MPPFL funding.  [DG1] 

Resolved that Schools Forum:

1.    Note the schools block update report.

2.    Agree to apply all the funding factors at the 2022-23 NFF rates.

3.    Note the impact of the Sparsity factor.

4.    Agree to set the Minimum Funding Guarantee at a level of +2.0%.

5.    Agree that the Growth fund be set at £0.725m.

(The decisions numbered 2-5 above were made later in the meeting under Agenda item 9).