Agenda item

Jane Seymour introduced the report (Agenda Item 9), which set out the current financial position of the high needs budget for 2021/22 and the position as far as it can be predicted for 2022/23, including the likely shortfall.

Jane Seymour introduced the report (Agenda Item 9), which set out the current financial position of the high needs budget for 2021/22 and the position as far as it can be predicted for 2022/23, including the likely shortfall. Key points of the report included:

• There was a forecast shortfall of £2,147,538 in the 2022/23 High Needs Block (HNB) budget and an estimated cumulative deficit of £5,835,939.
• Key areas of pressure where highlighted under Appendix A and Jane Seymour explained each of these in more detail. .
• Place Funding was agreed by the ESFA. Place funding could only be changed for Academy and FE places. Slightly less budget was required as there had been a reduction by one planned place. No additional funding could however, be obtained for maintained schools and this created additional pressure on those budgets.
• The Top Up Funding table on page 49 of the agenda showed the difference between the 2021/22 budget and 2022/23 budget. There were some reductions in funding including for non-West Berkshire Special Schools placements and FE College high needs placements.  There were however significant areas of pressure including independent special schools, maintained special schools, maintained and academy mainstream EHCPs and non-maintained special schools. Jane Seymour highlighted that the table on page 49 also showed the revenue cost of the new secondary SEMH provision in Theale.
• Detail on Pupil Referral Units was detailed under section three of Appendix A. It was expected that an extra £200k would be required for children with EHCPs.
• Jane Seymour moved on to other statutory services under section four of Appendix A where the increases were generally not significant. There were however, spending increases related to the education of children with health needs and medical tuition for children with health needs. This related to children out of school with emotional health needs and increasing levels of children who were Emotionally Based School Avoiders (EBSA). There was a duty to provide tuition for these children.
• Table five under section five of Appendix A detailed non-statutory service budgets for 2020/21 and 2021/22 and estimates for 2022/23. Jane Seymour highlighted that there were no significant budget increases predicted in this area.
• Jane Seymour reported that the next section of the report looked at the two sets of Invest to Initiatives. The impact of the first set of initiatives had been reported to the last Forum meeting in October 2021 including placements that had been avoided and the savings from these projects were detailed in the report on page 58 and 59. It was proposed that the first set of projects were funded permanently based on evaluation data. It was proposed that funding for the second set of projects should be continued for a further year pending further evaluation data.

RESOLVED that the Schools’ Forum noted the report, which would return to the Forum for consideration in January 2022.