Agenda item

The Forum considered a report (Agenda Item 12) to present the Department for Education (DfE) benchmarking information on school funding, based on 2015/16 Section 251 budget submissions.

The appendices to the report provided the key funding data for West Berkshire Council (WBC) compared to its statistical neighbours and to all other unitary authorities.

Compared to WBC’s statistical neighbours, West Berkshire was still funding schools well above the median – though dropped to third highest (Appendix B), and this was also reflected in the unit of funding received – being the second highest (Appendix A).

WBC’s schools block unit of funding received (£4,368) was below average compared to unitary authorities (Appendix E), and individual school budgets (ISB) were also below the average at £4,201(Appendix F). Due to the additional £390m distributed to the lowest funded local authorities in 2015/16, the national average unit of funding had increased to £4,612, with the highest funded authority being Tower Hamlets at £7,007 per pupil, and the lowest Wokingham at £4,151 per pupil. The highest ISB is £6,842, which was Tower Hamlets. The lowest is £3,000 at Middlesborough. Wokingham, although the lowest funded was £4,150.

There were wide variations in spending on high needs budgets per pupil, even when comparing WBC’s statistical neighbours (Appendix C). WBC’s high needs budget was higher than the average for unitary authorities (Appendix G) with spending of £318 per pupil, compared to local authorities such as Portsmouth at £158 (the lowest) and Hampshire at £176. However, this year there were more local authorities spending more than West Berkshire compared to last year. Nationally, the highest spending on high needs was Tower Hamlets at £566.

 (Post meeting note, it was agreed that the following information be included in the minutes:

It must be noted that the divisor is total population rather than number of pupils with additional needs, so therefore should not be taken as a comparator of actual cost of provision per child receiving it. Hampshire might have a lower proportion of children with high needs

End of post-meeting note)

WBC’s total schools budget at £4,734 per pupil was close to average when compared to statistical neighbours (Appendix D), but below average when compared to unitary authorities (Appendix H). The national average is £4,943 and highest is £8,132 at Tower Hamlets.

When comparing individual school budgets with GCSE results (Appendix I), West Berkshire still fell in the top quartile (below average cost, above average results) compared to the average for all unitary authorities. Although Tower Hamlet’s ISB was 63% more than for West Berkshire schools, their results for 5 GCSEs grade A* to C including English and Maths was only slightly better at 63.4% compared to 61.8%.

Patricia Brims enquired whether Pupil Premium Grants were reflected in the benchmarking information; Claire White confirmed it was not.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.