Agenda item

The report of Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) presents the position of the revenue balances for Wiltshire maintained schools as at 31 March 2024 and identifies those in surplus and deficit.

Grant Davis, Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager, introduced the report which presented the position of revenue balances for Wiltshire Maintained Schools as at 31 March 2024, and identified those in surplus and deficit. The following was then highlighted: 

• The net surplus balances for the financial year 2023/24 were confirmed as £11.3m with 95 schools holding surplus balances of £13.1m and 14 schools in deficit to a value of £1.9m.  

• When comparing the figures to those of last year, it was highlighted that there had been a slight reduction in the net surplus balances of £0.9m. However, the number of Local Authority (LA) Maintained Schools had decreased from 116 to 109 over the period of 31 March 2023 to 31 March 2024. Furthermore, it was highlighted that the data did not include those schools which had converted to academies during the financial year. 

• Paragraph 5 of the report was highlighted which presented a breakdown of the movement of net revenue balances over the last 3 financial years and showed that the balances were generally coming down across Primary, Secondary, and Special Schools over that period. 

• Appendix 1 of the report was then highlighted which showed a breakdown of all individual Maintained Schools’ revenue surplus and deficit balances. It was noted that there were two trigger points in which the Department for Education (DfE) could request further information from LAs and these were detailed in Paragraph 8 of the report. 

• Appendix 2 of the report was then raised alongside Appendices 3 and 4 which noted that an investigation could be triggered by the DfE as per Paragraphs 8a and 8b of the report, as there were 9 schools that have held a revenue balance of 15% or more of their school budget share over the past 5 years, and 4 schools that have held deficit balances of more than 2.5% and £10,000 over the past 4 years. 

• Paragraphs 12 through 16 of the report were then noted as the key points for the Forum to consider, with Paragraph 17 detailing the indicative position for 2024-25. 

• Finally, it was highlighted that the report presented data from Maintained Schools, which represented approximately 50% of the total schools in Wiltshire. 

 During the discussion, points included: 

• It was confirmed that Wiltshire was not in a dissimilar position to comparable LAs and it was noted that some neighbouring LAs had considered reintroducing a clawback scheme for surplus balances. However, it was highlighted that Wiltshire Council had not had such a scheme in place for approximately 12 years, but that it could be considered in the future. It was further highlighted that schools often retained surplus balances in order to fund specific projects such as refitting or erecting new buildings.  

• Following from this, Members queried if a further review of the surplus and deficit balances could be undertaken, if any neighbouring LAs had conducted similar reviews, and if the data on surplus balances was correlated with school effectiveness information. In response, officers confirmed that regular discussions were undertaken between School Finance and School Effectiveness officers in order to understand the broader picture of individual school’s budgets. Furthermore, it was noted that the DfE would be aware of the financial positions but had not intervened with Wiltshire Council or any other neighbouring authorities to officers’ knowledge with regard to these balances. 

• It was clarified that those schools in deficit were in that position for a number of reasons, be that legacy debts with the new school leadership teams working to recover the situation, a drop in pupils on roll, or due to schools receiving a higher number of SEND pupils than expected and subsequently implementing additional support.  

• It was noted that differences between individual schools’ financial positions could be due to factors such as staffing/class structures, school popularity or dated Planned Admission Numbers (PAN).  

• Officers agreed to continue the discussion with Members in other relevant forums such as the School Funding Working Group.  

Following which, it was: 

Resolved: 

The Schools Forum noted the report. 

Members took a comfort break from 14.55pm to 15.00pm.