Agenda item

Melanie Ellis introduced the report (Agenda Item 6), which set out the requirements and changes for setting the primary and secondary school funding formula for 2022/23 and to approve West Berkshire Council’s funding proposals to go out to consultation with all schools.

Melanie Ellis drew attention to section 2.1 of the report, which recommended that the consultation be undertaken with all schools on:

(1)  West Berkshire Council’s proposed school funding formula for 2022/23

(2)  An up to 0.5% transfer from the Schools Block to other funding blocks

(3)  The criteria to be used to allocate additional funds

(4)  The proposed services to be de-delegated.

The largest change in the 2022/23 National Funding Formula (NFF) was changes to the sparsity factor. The sparsity factor distances were now based on road distances, instead of straight-line distances and the sparsity distance taper had been introduced, in addition to the existing year group size taper. In 2021/22 seven West Berkshire schools had been eligible for sparsity and under the new NFF 22 schools would be eligible. The impact of this was detailed under the table in section 5.5 of Appendix A to the report.

Regarding recommendation two, Melanie Ellis reported that 0.5% could be transferred from the Schools’ Block if approval was given by the Schools’ Forum. If approved, 0.5% would equate to £590k. Melanie Ellis highlighted that there was a £60k shortfall in the Central School Services Block (CSSB) and a deficit recovery plan in place for the Early Years Block (EYB). The forecast deficit for the High Needs Block (HNB) for April 2022 was £3.6m. Proposals for how the money would be used, if a transfer was agreed to the HNB, was set out under sections 7.10 and 7.11 of the to follow pack including a revised version of Appendix A. Melanie Ellis reported that like in previous years a question would be included within the consultation with schools asking for a view on what percentage should be transferred if approved.

Melanie Ellis drew attention to section 6.1 on page 11 of the agenda. West Berkshire Council replicated the NFF as far as possible, however after pupil characteristic changes and any transfers of funding, the formula would need to be altered to remain within the total funding available. A decision would need to be taken locally on how to allocate any surplus or shortfall in the final funding allocation. In previous two years it had been agreed that this should be achieved by amending the AWPU rates and it was proposed that this option be included as part of the consultation as this provided the most even distribution across schools.

Finally Melanie referred to the final two questions within the proposed consultation regarding the criteria for accessing the additional funds set out in section eight of Appendix A and de-delegated services, which was set out under section nine of the Appendix A.

Jon Hewitt proposed that the recommendation under section 2.1 of the report, which proposed that the consultation be undertaken with all schools on the four areas listed above, be approved. This was seconded by David Ramsden. The Chair invited the Forum to vote on the proposal and the motion was approved.

RESOLVED that the Schools Forum approved the recommendation set out in section 2.1 of the report. The consultation with schools would take place for three weeks from 20^th October until 10^th November 2021.