Agenda item

Claire White introduced the report which provided an update on the Schools Funding Arrangements for 2017/18. She explained that she had hoped the second stage consultation was released before the meeting because it otherwise would not be released until after the EU referendum on 23 June 2016 and that would make the timescale for consultation shorter. Concern was expressed about the tightness of any consultation and whether it would therefore be meaningful.

The second stage consultation would attach values to formula factors and provide indicative impacts on local authorities and individual schools. It was not known whether West Berkshire would receive more funding or not as a result of these proposals. This would be a key determinant on whether any changes would need to be made to the existing West Berkshire school formula.

The same timetable as in previous years would apply for setting the local school formula for 2017/18 (i.e. submission to the DfE by 31st October), so it was likely that the decision making and consultation with schools would need to take place in a very short timescale.

Claire White then drew attention to paragraph 4.5 of the report regarding the sparsity factor which the Schools Forum had so far chosen not to apply. It was anticipated that this would be incorporated into the National Funding Formula.

Graham Spellman congratulated officers on the content of their response to the consultation. He asked which services were funded by the Education Services Grant (ESG). Ian Pearson explained that the government was proposing to reduce the level of ESG paid to maintained schools and Academies. The ESG currently paid for management of school estates and more importantly school improvement. It was not known how much the reduction might be. Graham Spellman queried how schools would drive up standards if the funding for school improvement was cut, Ian Pearson advised that a schools commissioner would be required to make those decisions.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.