Agenda item

Resolved that the proposed formula for 2014/15 be approved.

This decision is not subject to call in as:

·      a delay in implementing the decision this would cause the Council serious financial implications or could compromise the Council's position.

therefore it will be implemented immediately.

The Executive considered a report (Agenda Item 7) concerning the proposed changes to the formula used for allocating funding to schools in 2014/15.

Councillor Irene Neill explained that major changes to the school funding system occurred in 2013/14 and for 2014/15, some additional minor changes were being recommended to the Executive by the Schools’ Forum. This followed a detailed review and period of consultation with schools. There were four changes to the formula proposed as set out in the report and below:

(1)       The Department for Education (DfE) had introduced the optional use of a sparsity factor for 2014/15 in response to concerns raised about the viability of small schools. However, schools in West Berkshire were not generally sparse with only four of the Council’s fifteen primary schools with 100 pupils or less meeting the DfE’s two mile distance criteria. This proposal was to acknowledge use of the sparsity factor, but for primary schools the distance criteria was proposed to be raised to three miles to reflect the meaning of what was sparse. Under this criteria, no primary school would qualify for additional funding, but one secondary school would qualify for an additional £100k. A letter had been sent to the Schools Minister, David Laws, at his request with suggestions of an alternative funding methodology to help resolve the problem of small school viability and to be fair to all small schools, but in the meantime efforts would be made to look at other solutions such as how the most vulnerable schools could be structured in order to reduce costs.

(2)       The Council allocated over £2.4m of the total formula fund to schools which went towards raising the attainment of pupils from deprived backgrounds. This was in addition to the pupil premium. The methodology used to best target this funding had been reviewed to ensure it was going to the schools and pupils that needed it most. Firstly it was proposed that ‘Free School Meals Ever 6’ was used, being the indicator for pupils who had been eligible for free school meals in the last six years rather than just the pupils currently eligible, this was so that those pupils who might drift in and out of eligibility were captured. This would be the same indicator used for allocating the Pupil Premium Grant. Secondly it was proposed to increase the weighting of the Ever 6 indicator from 50% to 75% and thus reduce the use of the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) to 25% to reflect that there were some concerns about the reliability of the IDACI indicator in identifying deprived pupils.

(3)       Proposal three was linked to proposal two as the Council could only use one type of free school meal indicator throughout the entire formula. Therefore by changing to Ever 6 for the funding of deprivation, the Council would also need to change it for the funding of low level Special Educational Needs (SEN), for primary schools this indicator was used for one third of their SEN funding. This had minimal impact on individual schools.

(4)       The annual lump sum paid to schools was proposed to increase to £126,400 and was an additional delegation to schools transferred from the centrally retained service and was to support schools in financial difficulty. This particular service would no longer be a central service, rather schools would have the money delegated with the option to buy the service back and was therefore a technical change.

The financial impact on individual schools was relatively minor and was mainly as a result of realigning the funding for pupils from deprived backgrounds. The core funding a school received per pupil was not changing.

Councillor Neill asked the Executive to approve the proposed formula for 2014/15.

Councillor David Allen praised the work conducted on this report by Claire White. He then queried how the sparsity factor could change as part of the national funding formula. Councillor Neill advised that this was a major issue nationally and believed that the Government had received a number of representations with regard to the fairness or not of arrangements, particularly for small schools. Claire White added that as part of introducing the sparsity factor she expected the Department for Education to look at how local authorities had used it in 2013/14 in order to set the national formula for future years. As indicated by Councillor Neill, a letter had been written to the Schools Minister, David Laws, which suggested a fairer approach for small schools.

Councillor Allen then queried whether the proposal for the use of the deprivation funding was the best way forward. Claire White responded that the choice for the Council was limited and was between pupils eligible for free school meals in year or for the last six years, with the latter proposed by the Schools’ Forum. The proposal meant that one school would be adversely affected, but it was felt by the Schools’ Forum that in the current year that particular school was in receipt of too much funding and the proposal of the Schools’ Forum would help to correct this in the funding allocation for 2014/15.

Councillor Gordon Lundie sought to clarify the point made in paragraph 2.1 (2) of the Executive Report. This stated that overall West Berkshire schools had the lowest attainment for pupils eligible for free school meals when compared to all other local authorities, but Councillor Lundie queried whether this should state the largest attainment gap between those eligible for free school meals and those who were not. Rachael Wardell confirmed that this was the largest gap in attainment rather than the lowest attainment.

Councillor Lundie also commented that while he was not being critical of the report, it was difficult to follow and consideration was needed as to how it could be made more comprehensible in communicating this issue in future versions of the report.

RESOLVED that the proposed formula for 2014/15 be approved.

Reason for the decision: The Executive is required to approve the formula and its submission to the Education Funding Agency by 31 October 2013.

Other options considered: As detailed in the consultation to schools.