Agenda item

(To receive a report from Tony Warnock, Operations and Financial Advice Manager, which provides an update to the Schools Forum on the latest announcement on Local Authority (LA) funding for schools from April 2015)

The Forum gave consideration to a report from the Operations and Financial Advice Manager, which provided an update on the DfE's latest announcement on Local Authority (LA) funding for schools from April 2015, and set out the LA's proposal for the use of the additional funding that would be provided.

The report highlighted the background behind the 'Fairer Schools Funding in 2015/16' consultation, and the implications for Lincolnshire, and that on 17 July 2014, the DfE had announced its response to the consultation exercise.  The key points to note from the consultation were detailed on pages 39 and 40 of the report presented.

It was highlighted that it was implicit in the DfE's consultation and its calculations that the additional funding was intended for the primary and secondary sectors.  However, this matter could not be considered in isolation as there were wider issues affecting the DSG, which had been captured in the earlier report 'Revised School Budget 2014/15'.  There were also issues arising from the requirement for the LA to comply with the DfE's regulations relating to SEN funding, which were also captured in the earlier report 'Proposed Changes to SEN funding in 2015/16, which had been considered by the Forum earlier in the agenda.

Having considered all the issues the LA proposed to:

·         Transfer £2m in to the Higher Needs block to cover the potential growth in the base budget for SEN, as a result of the DfE's requirement for the LA to delegate some of the funding for Band 6 to 8 statements. This requirement reduced to £6,000 the current threshold at which additional special educational needs funding is provided; and

·         Allocate the remaining £2.5m equally between primary and secondary schools (all schools) by uplifting the awpus by the same percentage.

The Forum noted that the final decision on the use of the £4.5m funding needed to be reflected in the LA's Authority Proforma Tool submission to the DfE on 31 October 2014.

During discussion, the following points were raised:

·         That for the Schools Block element of the DSG, Lincolnshire had the 40^th lowest  per pupil funding rate of the 152 LA's in 2015/16;

·         There was concern raised that the nursery school budget was not going to increase, but the nursery schools still had the same budgetary needs.  It was reported that there was an Early Years Premium coming in and that the LA had the discretion to move the money between blocks;

·         Concern was expressed that Appendix 1 to the report which highlighted that Lincolnshire was below the minimum awpu rates and that Lincolnshire had been given £4.5m, but was only planning to spend £2.5m; and

·         It was highlighted that it was regrettable that there had been a cap on the lump sum, and that the sparsity factor in Lincolnshire did not work. The Forum was advised that the lump sum would remain, but further support would not be given to smaller schools.

RESOLVED

1.    That the report be noted.

2.    That support be given to the Local Authority's proposals for use of the £4.5m increase in DSG from 2015/16, as set out in paragraph 7 of the report and detailed below:-

b.    Allocate the remaining £2.5m equally between primary and secondary schools by uplifting the awpus by the same percentage.