Agenda item

The report of Marie Taylor (Head of Finance – Children and Education) seeks to present the final outturn budget monitoring information against the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) for the financial year 2020/21 as at 31^st March 2021.

Marie Taylor (Head of Finance – Children and Education) referred to the budget monitoring outturn report as at 31 March 2021 that was circulated with the Agenda.  Marie highlighted the following:

·         A final overspend of £7.906 million against the overall school’s budget which was an improved position than previously reported in part due to staff time supporting Covid activity being chargeable to certain Covid grants;

·         The pandemic had created much uncertainty for early years and Officers had worked with the Early Years Reference Group to ascertain what best suited the needs in the sector;

·         The Local Authority has a duty of sufficiency for early years and continued to work closely with providers to support them, providing additional financial support whilst following the Covid guidance within the terms and conditions of the grant funding.  The intention was for any significant underspends to be re-distributed to settings under the local discretion guidance.  However, most still attended settings even if they were different from their usual as dual placements were not allowed due to Covid;

·         The EYRG requested that the early years block variance for future years (i.e. for 21-22 financial year onwards) be separately ringfenced. The national regulations assume this is the case anyway and so from 1 April 2021 all variances and logged funding changes will be separately accounted for and reported;

·         The 19-20 adjustment based on the January 2020 census data was an increase of £0.539 million. In addition, the 20-21 allocation increased by £0.943 million. This reflected a higher count of children than the previous year;

·         The Contain Outbreak Management Fund (COMF) of £1m was the only dedicated funding that early years received, and Officers were pleased to be able to support settings in this way.  The payments made totalled £0.418m in 20-21 and it had been agreed that agreed that the unclaimed allocation of £0.582M could be rolled forward to support the
sector in the 2021-22 financial year which was great news as the impact on settings still continued with bubbles closing and cleaning costs etc;

·         The underspend on schools’ budgets largely related to the school’s growth fund which was helping to offset the overall pressure on the DSG;

·         High needs budgets overspent by £11.507m. The biggest areas of overspend were named pupil allowances and top ups, independent special school packages, and alternative provision. When the level of funding available does not match the local needs the budget cannot be set at an achievable level and so the location of the overspend is not an indication of individual budget issues but that the whole block under significant pressure and the major driver of the overspend is volume;

·         The numbers of EHCP’s has increased year on year although the number being requested has slightly slowed – this could be due to the reduced face to face contact with pupils due to the Covid pandemic.  However, they were now playing catch up with many referrals now being submitted;

·         Details were given in paragraph 21 of the report of the volume variance analysis, which showed that the majority of placements had increased in the budgeted unit weekly price which was not necessarily a bad thing that those with higher needs were being supported by those types of placements that were best for them.  There was a slight reduction in the Independent Special School fees.  Work would continue through the high needs block working group and this would be shared later in the meeting;

·         The DSG reserve brought forward of £11.350m was increased by the positive early years block adjustment of £0.539m.  The overspend takes the reserve into a deficit position of £18.717m.  There had been a request from other Finance Directors and Directors of Children’s Services to have details of our high needs position for a national survey and Officers felt it was beneficial for it to be looked at by other pressure groups;

·         Officers had a meeting scheduled soon with the DfE regarding the DSG Management Plan and would report back any useful information, insight, or recommendations to both the High Needs working group and Schools Forum. It was anticipated that an updated plan would be brought to the to the October Forum meeting for information, update and approval.

Resolved:

That Schools Forum

1)    Note the final outturn budget monitoring position and the deficit DSG reserve balance.

2)    Note the change in accounting treatment around the early years grant for 2021/22.