Agenda item

(To receive a report from Mark Popplewell, Head of Finance – Children's Services, which invites the Schools' Forum to consider and comment on the Local Authority's funding formula proposals for 2021/22 following the government's funding announcements on the mainstream schools national funding formula proposals)

The Chairman invited Mark Popplewell, Head of Finance – Children's Services to present the report, which provided the Forum with an opportunity to comment on the Local Authority's funding formula for 2021/22 following the government's funding announcements on the mainstream schools national funding formula proposals.  Appendix A to the report provided the Forum with details of the outcomes of the Local Authority's consultation with mainstream schools.

The Forum was advised of the background to the national funding formula (NFF) and to the fact that the purpose of the introduction of the NFF was to create consistency in funding across all schools nationally and to ensure fairer settlement for each school.

Table one outlined Lincolnshire's schools overall funding level for 2021/22 through the implementation of the NFF compared to other Local Authorities.  The Forum noted that Lincolnshire's position nationally had improved since the NFF was implemented.

It was reported that illustrative 2021/22 funding for Lincolnshire's primary and secondary mainstream schools (using the October 2019 data) was an overall increase of £18.067m in delegated funding, when taking into account the £20.769m added into the schools block for teachers' pay and pension grant funding.

Page 18 and 19 of the report provided details of the proposed Lincolnshire's Schools Funding for 2021/22, namely to continue replicating the government's NFF in 2021/22, subject to affordability.  It was noted that the matter of affordability had arisen due to the time lag in data used to fund Local Authorities Schools block allocations and the significant rise in Free School meal eligibility as a result of the pandemic.  It was noted further that the Local Authority would consider all options available to ensure individual school level implications were minimised before a final decision was made.

The Forum was advised that the Local Authority had also consulted on the proposal to continue using targeted funding as an approach to supporting schools, to use the actual amount of notional SEN determined through the NFF when identifying whether a school had sufficient notional SEN to support pupils with an educational health and care plan.  The change in the methodology would provide fairer funding, and transition protection would be provided to support this change.

The Forum noted overall, 60 schools had responded to the consultation, which had been an improvement on previous consultation exercises.  It was highlighted that of the schools that had responded the support rate had ranged from 93% to 100% across the consultation questions for the Local Authority's proposals to continue replicating the government's NFF in 2021/22 and to use the NFF as the basis for determining the notional SEN amount per school, when identifying whether a school was entitled to targeted funding. The outcomes of the consultation were shown on pages 32 to 39 of the report pack.

Details of next steps and direction of travel were shown on page 22 of the report.

In conclusion, the Forum was advised that the Local Authority's proposals were to continue adopting the NFF in 2021/22 (subject to affordability), and the SEN related amendments, details of which were shown on page 23 of the report.

The Forum was advised further that of the schools that had responded to the consultation, the vast majority had supported the Local Authority's proposal to continue placating the government's national funding formula in 2021/22, and the SEN related amendments.

During discussion, the following points were raised:

·       What plans were in place for schools that were losing out on funding.  Confirmation was given that losing schools through the NFF as a result of their historic funding levels would not see a reduction in NFF per pupil funding, due to the government's positive minimum funding guarantee of +0.5% to +2.00%; and

·       Clarification of Lincolnshire's unit of funding figures in Table 1 on page 18, compared to the minimum per pupil funding levels detailed on page 19 of the report.  The Forum was advised that table one provided the overall funding the Local Authority received plus school site factors to fund delegated budgets, and that the per pupil funding level figure was a formula criteria to ensure all primary and secondary schools would attract the minimum per pupil funding level, by sector.

RESOLVED

1.    That The National Funding Formula for Schools Update report for 2021/22 be noted.

2.    That support be given to the Local Authority's funding proposals for 2021/22, including continuing to replicate the national funding formula, subject to affordability.