Agenda item

To consider the information report.

Nicola Webb, Assistant Chief Finance Officer, BCP Council, presented the report.

It was confirmed that some of the report had been covered in the previous discussions.

There will be an estimated additional £3m for the HNB.

The headline for mainstream schools is a 4% increase in almost all formula factor per pupil amounts. The schools that are on the Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG) will not see an increase of that amount. It was noted that the Government’s strategy for the National Funding Formula (NFF) has provided the schools with the greatest estimated overall needs with the lowest increase in funding compared with 2017-18. This is largely because local formulae had previously provided higher allocations than the NFF for deprivation. The NFF typically provides less variation in funding between schools compared with previous local arrangements. 

The inflation rate is currently 1.84% and the Government want to set the MFG in the National Funding Formula (NFF) at that rate. The council then has the option to reduce this in the local formula but with a minimum of 0.5%.

The mainstream NFF allocation to BCP is estimated in the mainstream formula paper on the agenda. The Government is not planning a big increase for Early Years (less than 2%) so this was not part of the headlines.

It was noted that the small increase to Early Years may not cover the National Living Wage. Historically there has been an increase each year of 4 to 5% but the indication is that it could be below that level in 2020-21 and perhaps the funding increase for early year suggests it might be increased by only the rate of inflation.

Concerns were raised that this would not bring the sector back to its original position and Early Years providers have had to increase the cost of private places. It was suggested this could impact on parents or the sufficiency of places and ultimately might reduce the scale of early intervention with a financial impact on the high needs budget later.

It was considered that the increased high needs cost had come from improved services reaching more children. The government has announced it wants services for pupils with SEND to improve further.  Based on experience since the 2014 reforms it is likely that this would increase high needs costs further. It was explained that the NFF gave additional money for children with certain characteristics. It was suggested that if the schools had enough funding more children could be managed within mainstream and fewer would need special provision.

A discussion was held on the fact that schools in this area had less HNB funding than in other areas. In response it was noted that the LA quoted as an example was believed to be in DSG deficit position. It was explained that this was not a funding issue, it’s a high needs issue and the council would be remiss in their duty to allow the deficit to increase without an agreed means for its recovery.

RESOLVED that the report was noted.