Agenda item

To consider the information report.

Nicola Webb, Assistant Chief Finance Officer, BCP Council, presented the report for Dedicated Schools Grant Budget Monitoring for 2019-2020.

Summary of main points:

·         The forecast end of year position for the DSG budget 2019-20 will be a net deficit of £1m.

·         The SEN expenditure is continuing to rise despite actions in place.

·         There has been extra funding coming into the High Needs Block (HNB) due to the import/export adjustment where there is a cross border flow of pupils. The details were taken from the January 19 Census which was finalised in July 2019.  The outcomes of this were not available when setting the budget in February.

·         There was additional funding from Early Years (EY) also from the January 2019 census that was underestimated in closing the Bournemouth and Poole 2018-19 financial statements. This will now be recorded as income for BCP in 2019-20 as a prior year adjustment.

·         The unbudgeted growth in the HNB is summarised in the paper and it was noted that it is an ongoing problem. It is anticipated this will continue into next year unless further actions are taken to stem demand.

·         Appendix C is the Directors’ report to Council for the end of June budget position which shows the already planned actions being taken. Additional places for SEN have been created in both mainstream and special schools. This new state-funded capacity has quickly filled with new demand with further pupils needing to be placed in the independent sector which is costly. 

·         Appendix C Key Financial Health Indicator schedule gives a summary of the areas and targets, and financial impact of non-achievement. This schedule will be considered by the Task and Finish Group at the next meeting in early October.

Questions were invited from Forum.

It was confirmed that the underspend in Appendix A of £1.2m in Place Funding is offset by the overspend in the independent sector.

The overspend on Bespoke/Therapies was largely due to Christchurch pupils who were still under assessment at 1 April or this activity had not yet started. High Cost temporary placements have had to be used whilst permanent arrangements are put in place. 

It was noted in Appendix C that there are 18% of pupils under BCP in independent provision whilst the national average is 4.7%. It was suggested that if this issue could be solved then it would resolve the HNB budget overspend.

Concerns were raised on the issue of independent schools outside of the BCP area being included on the Local Offer. It was noted that BCP had a strategy of creating extra places locally in order to avoid using independent places. The increase in demand meant that the places were taken up by that rather than taking children from the independent sector.

Significant places have been created in recent years. It was noted that there had been discussions about bidding for a special free school to create additional capacity. In the last round of special free schools bidding the previous councils were co-contributors to the Bovington School and this has potentially freed space in the west of the area. BCP may bid in the next round that had been delayed.

It was suggested that BCP look at the capital available to create additional places and look at the estate as a whole and see if it can be used in a different way to meet the needs of the HNB. It was questioned whether the capacity of other schools could be used in a more effective way.

Concerns were raised that even if capacity was increased, parental choice would still mean parents may prefer their children to go to independent schools so could these schools be removed from the Local Offer? It was confirmed that these schools had to be included as we have to set out all provision in the area that may meet the needs of children, some of which cannot be met by other schools, as the needs of some children are very complex. 

After discussion it was agreed that there was further work to be done regarding the commissioning of SEN places.

It was questioned which BCP Officers were responsible for the HNB. NG confirmed he was responsible for the DSG as a whole. The new Service Director for Inclusion and Family Services, Julian Radcliffe would be responsible for HNB expenditure. Teresa Jones has been appointed as the Head of SEND. Both Teresa and Julian would be reporting to the Task and Finish Group at the October meeting.

It was confirmed that the predicted costs in the HNB are forecast to grow by at least £4m a year, if historic trends continue. It was suggested that budget cuts in mainstream schools may be a contributory factor in the increased HNB.

RESOLVED that the report was noted.