Agenda item

The report of Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) seeks to provide Schools Forum with an update on the implications of the change to the Department for Education’s date for calculating Pupil Premium for schools. 

Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) referred to the report which sought to provide Schools Forum with an update on the implications of the change to the DfE date for calculating Pupil Premium for schools.  Grant highlighted the following:

·         The f40 group had collated the financial impact from its members to obtain a wider picture of the implications from moving the Pupil Premium census date from January, back to the previous October;

·         The Pupil Premium Grant (PPG) is designed to support pupils and learners using the following three drivers for allocating funding;

-    Free School Meal Ever6 – pupils from a deprivation background

-    Service Pupil Ever6 – pupils from a service family

-    Post-Looked After Child – pupils who have left local authority care        through an adoption or guardianship order

·         PPG has always been calculated using the January census however as the January data was the most up to date census information available for the next financial year;

·         The DfE when questioned gave the following explanation for the date change:

-       Aligning the census date with mainstream funding to October

-       During Covid, school pupils were not in school during January but were in October;

·         There is an impact in moving the date as both locally and nationally there has been a significant increase in the number of pupils eligible for a free school meal (FSM) and the knock on effect will result in a lower number of pupils being eligible for PPG funding. In effect this this would create a lag or shortfall in PPG funding for schools in 2021-22;

·         Schools would still be required to support their disadvantaged PPG pupils and be held to account by Ofsted for their progress, despite not being fully funded for those pupils;

·         For Wiltshire position this would mean a shortfall in funding of £555k.  £493k for primary schools and £62k for secondary schools;

·         The results of the f40 survey to its 42 members show that the overall picture shows £36.4m of significant funding that has been lost just from moving the census date;

·         The f40 group are asking the DfE to consider either delaying the change or compensating schools for the funding they will miss out on this year as schools will have to find the money from elsewhere to support disadvantaged pupils when funding is already tight and so other parts of their budgets will suffer;

·         The Society of County Treasurers (SCT) are doing a survey of DSG deficits across local authorities which would form part of their ongoing pressure for the funding and management of DSG deficits in light of the significant growth in demand in EHCP’s.  The results of the survey should be available in September and would be brought to the October meeting of the Forum.

The Chair wanted to emphasise that the provision for those disadvantaged learners would still continue despite not receiving the funding but felt it was important for schools to show the DfE how budgets would be under further pressure because of the change affecting funding levels.

Cllr Dominic Muns (Portfolio Holder for Education) asked for an explanation of the impact of the change.  Grant Davis reported that there had been an increase in the number of eligible for FSM’s between October and January.  If the numbers had been taken from January census, they would have been higher, and the funding received based on that figure not the lower October figure.  Whilst it would level out, in the meantime this would create a lag and be a funding issue for schools.  Cllr Muns asked  if the rise was new pupils starting school or if it was the existing pupils now being eligible for FSM when they were not before.  Grant Davis confirmed that the latter was the case. 

A Forum Member reported that in their school there were 54 PP students in October and then 62 by the spring this was linked to family hardship in the current climate.

Resolved:

That Schools Forum note the content of the report and the f40’s ongoing dialogue with the DfE, along with the work of the Society of County Treasurers.