Agenda item

To receive budget monitoring information against the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) for the financial year 2012/13.

Liz Williams, Head of Finance introduced the report which outlined the final financial position for the dedicated schools budget.

The Forums attention was drawn to the reporting changes in budgets for high needs placements in 2013-14 and the new responsibility for funding post-16 placements.

The underspend of £1.493m showed a favourable movement of £0.888m since previously reported, explained by two one off effects, a review of rates by property services and an overestimation on academy conversions. From 2013-14 reductions for academy conversions would be easier to estimate as funding was delegated through the formula. 

In response to questions the following points were clarified:

·       Rates were delegated and values were estimated each year. They were excluded from the Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG).

·       If a school is forced to convert to an academy then any deficit is kept by the LA. If they choose to convert then any deficit is taken with them.

·       In future it would be difficult to use any DSG underspend to pay off the deficit balances from closed or converting schools.

Clarification from the Education Funding Agency (EFA) confirmed that balances may be moved into the Early Years / High Needs block in 2013-14, however they could not be used within the schools block without a proposal to delegate, involving a consultation with schools and, as budgets cannot be re-determined in year, a potential start date of 2014-15.

In response to questions the following points were made:

·       There was a need to add a new line for facilities costs to account for backfill, due to the increased amount of time the LA required heads to attend meetings or consult with them

·       There was a need to look at how to support special schools through the transition given the difficulty in planning and the potential cumulative effect of the new funding mechanism, and to get a more sustainable system through place plus

Work was planned to benchmark against other authorities and analyse high needs spend with a report to come back to the Forum’s meeting in October.

Should evidence support it the ability to make one off payments was available, in addition to the possibility of setting top up rates to allow protection against turbulence, rectifying in year from the high needs allocation and looking at band values.

Resolved:

The Forum agreed

a)    to note the outturn position for the Dedicated Schools Budget in 2012-13;

b)    i.        to recommend that the net deficit balances from closing schools be written off against the overall DSG reserve for   2012-13;

          ii.       to investigate whether it is within the regulations for the LA                 to also retain surplus balances from sponsored academy                    conversions;

c)    to note the remaining level of the earmarked DSG reserve available to roll forward to 2013-14;            

d)    to provide an analysis of the spend against the high needs block along with the outcomes of the discussions with Special Schools on benchmarking, band values, etc to the Forum’s October meeting to enable discussions on a fund to support special schools in financial difficulties; and

e)    to leave funding from the existing de-delegated contingency as is.