Agenda item

Claire White and Maria Shepherd presented the report on the draft early years funding and budget 2015/16.

The current forecast for 2014/15 is an under spend of £762k, which currently includes the estimated January 2015 census and take up during the Spring term. This forecast will be updated at the next Schools Forum once the January census data is available. The under spend is due to the slow take up of 2 year old children compared with the funding provided. The under spend is partly offsetting the over spend on 3 and 4 year old funding.

It is proposed that the overall early years under spend be ring fenced to the early years block and carried forward to continue to plug the shortfall in 3 and 4 year old funding, which will enable funding rates to stay the same in the short term.

Assuming the carry forward from 2014/15 remains in the block the estimated funding for 2015/16 is £7,934k but this will be updated once the January 2015 census data is available.

ACTION: Final proposals will be presented at the next Schools Forum meeting.

Action

C White / M Shepherd