Agenda item

Melanie Ellis introduced the report (Agenda Item 10) that set out the overall amount of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) and the funding settlement for 2020/21.

The report set out the total allocations for 2020/21. The budgets for all four blocks including schools, high needs, central schools services and early years had now been agreed for 2020/21.

Melanie Ellis referred to section 9.1 of the report, which detailed that the Department for Education (DfE) would require a report from any local authority that had a cumulative DSG deficit of more than one percent at the end of the financial year (31^st March 2020). It was highly likely that West Berkshire would exceed this threshold due to the current forecast overspend on the High Needs Block.

It was noted that there was an error in section 8.2 of the report, which should read as follows: The 2020/21 allocation for West Berkshire has been announced as £21.404m and the 0.25% schools block transfer would increase this to £21.667.

RESOLVED that the Schools’ Forum noted the report.