Agenda item

To note the contents of the report.

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

An increase of 5.4 M (2.4%) was noted in the Schools Block.

Funding for Central Schools Services continues to drop.

The % increase for HNB is in line with previous years and is allowed for in the MTFP – however this will not solve the HNB problem.

Early Years funding is not yet known but historically the sector has not received good increases.

There have been some tweaks to Schools Block NFF, as detailed in Para. 6 of the report.

DSG deficit management – BCP has an issue which needs a conversation with the DfE. The DfE has made some deals with some Las. More LAs now have the same problem.

There is currently a live consultation from the DfE re future years about moving to a hard NFF. BCP has adopted this for the last couple of years and there is no indication we would not adopt again unless affordability is an issue. The consultation is open for others to make responses about a range of issues. Schools in receipt of split-site funding and multi-use may want to feed in as DfE are looking to find a national formula approach for these – but no details of how in the consultation.

Growth funding – no announcement yet. This will include moving to National methodology for this after next year. Schools can expect that BCP will be likely to stick with NFF.

Geoff Cherrill noted that one of the issues for schools is around the delayed Special Needs review. In order for BCP schools to respond the Director of Children’s Services is keen to have bandings looked at to address support to mainstream schools – it is felt that this piece of work needs to be done rapidly.

Rina Mistry has been asked to provide the necessary data and resources to complete the banding review work. Contact Rina for any further information or to discuss anything around the review.

ACTION: anyone wanting to participate in the banding review work contact Rina Mistry directly.

Sian Thomas requested there be some analysis around Resource Base models and Schools Plus models to look at EHCPs and the impact of those models for particular schools. It would also help to look a any discrepancies around funding.

Terry Reynolds noted that the LA has been requested to respond to the recent SEND Inspection by presenting a Written Statement of Action (WSOA) which will require an in depth look at the SEND Strategy and also at provision within all schools and the pattern of that provision. We would not want to tackle the issues in a piecemeal way as the right balance will be needed across the whole of BCP to ensure the right provision for all children and young people in the system. A map of provision needs to be agreed with schools, parents and families.

Simon McKenzie noted that the primary focus is to have our children and young people educated in BCP schools. There is a need to look at schools who currently have additional funding for a School Plus model and look at the impact of this.

Dave Simpson queried if there were any thoughts on how the HN Subgroup will be involved in the work. It was noted that this discussion has now escalated as there is now a HNB Recovery Board chaired by Graham Farrant and we would need to look at how it fits in with that. There are overlaps in terms of overall LA budgets and for the HNB Recovery Board it would be how the subgroup feed into to that.

It was agreed to get the subgroup back up and running and to get the data and discussion underway as soon as possible then it can feed into the Schools Forum at the 12 November meeting.

ACTION: Date to be set for HN subgroup to meet.

It was requested that due to the number of issues to be discussed at 12 November meeting could consideration be given to it being face to face rather than virtual.

ACTION: LA to look into facilitating face to face meeting for 12 November Schools Forum.