Agenda and minutes

The Chair of the meeting needs to be a member of the forum. As no nominations were received for Chair, it was agreed to reschedule this to another formal meeting.

Apologies were received from Ed Petrie and Jenny Lawrence.

Action – Reminder to be sent to School Forum Members regarding the dates of meetings and to ensure that the membership list is correct.

The minutes from the meeting held on 4^th July 2022 were agreed as an accurate record.

There were no decisions to be made on this paper, but members were to note for information.

Paragraph 4 included a typing mistake, and the second sentence should say: The DfE state that the overall increase to school funding when compared to 2021/22 is 7.9% per pupil.

DfE produced 23/24 data that is based on the previous October census data which was used to calculate 22/23 budgets. Issues can arise around affordability.

Local Authorities do have the capacity to make amendments with certain restrictions regarding the soft formula.

The DfE are consulting on the move to a hard funding formula

Paragraph 8 provides info on key changes for funding for schools.

Teachers pay award will see an increase of around 5%

Increases relates to increases per pupil.

The Forum was asked to note that if there are affordability issues, and funding isn’t enough to run national funding, there is the potential to use a capping exercise.

An increase of 1.9% per head will still leave us near the bottom if the funding scale.

There is an element of protection from the DfE that may or may not continue in the future.

High Needs Block

Newton Europe is helping with the transformation of special needs.

Still waiting for information on government consultations about the future of the HNB which is a national issue.

Central Services Block 

The Local Authority uses this to support education functions within the Authority itself.

Early Years Block

Confirmation has not yet been received for 23/24 funding yet, but the DfE are consulting on this. Forecasting 5% increase.

Newton Europe

Jane Moore has sent a briefing to all schools about Transforming SEND in Leicestershire (TSIL) advising that the focus is on the SEND system and the spend on HNB. Newton Europe is working on a programme to work collectively across the system to find solutions.

Paragraph 10 should read ‘decrease’.

Paragraph 16 is a statement of fact and still remains an option even though the School Forum and Secretary of State have disagreed.

There is no other way to transfer between blocks.

Some schools are funded with small rent funding and some with split site funding.

The criteria for allocating rent funding is being tightened

Split site funding is being considered for a funding formula

DfE are aiming to get all schools on to the national formula.

There may be local decision making still with regard to pupil growth funding but within a tighter framework.

Relates to early years block of dedicated school’s grant.

This should be a fully funded service. Over the last 18 months, a deficit of £4 million has arisen due to paying out more to providers compared to what the DfE are providing.

DfE will not be reacting the situation and the Local Authority need to recover the deficit due to over payments.

A consultation is to take place in the autumn with providers regarding funding rates.

We can only use dedicated schools grant with permission from secretary of state. The requirement is that 95% of the dedicated schools grant goes to providers and the proposal allows this

All providers must submit their census data however this is proving difficult.

Concerns are that if the money has to be recouped, there is the risk that small providers could go out of business. This then leads to the risk of what will happen to children who will be less school ready and with possible SEN issues. This is forming part of the reason for going out to consultation on models.

Money has gone to providers already but there is the need to ensure that the providers don’t topple. This needs to be managed and the impact on individual providers monitored.

5 single models have been set out with the possible flexibility for individual providers to be applied with discretion. 

There is no proposal for transferring blocks.

The Local Authority is holding a deficit which shows under early years line and are looking at offsetting and creating savings. The recovery will be from early years and there will be no impact on other services because of this.

Action: An update to be provided at a future meeting once the consultation has taken place.

TSIL

The programme will help to ensure that all children have the right support in place at the right time and also help to understand why there are a lot more children coming through the EHCP assessment system.

Jane Moore suggested it would be helpful to have a representative from the school’s forum to assist with this work.

Thursday 16 February 2023, 2.00 pm

Tuesday 14^th February 2023 from 15:00 to 17:00.