Agenda item

(Reverend Mark Bennett joined the meeting at 6.05pm)

Ian Pearson introduced the report (Agenda Item 13), which aimed to report on the forecast financial position of the services funded by the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), highlighting any under or over spends, and to highlight the cumulative deficit on the DSG.

Ian Pearson highlighted that because the report included month 10 figures it should be reasonably accurate in terms of the end of year positon. Key information was presented in the two tables under 5.1 and 5.5. The key narrative about the position was set out under 4.4, 5.2 and 5.3 of the report. Ian Pearson drew attention to forecast figures for the current year and 2023 under section 5.5 where it could be seen that the two main areas of concern were the High Needs Block and the Early Years Block, which were both showing significant deficits.

Gemma Piper raised a query regarding the HNB between the forecasts for Quarter Three and month 10.  There was quite a large difference of £568k and she queried what had contributed to this. Ian Pearson was of the understanding that the majority of the figure referred to by Gemma Piper was a result of changes to pension costs as detailed as part of the previous HNB report. In previous years funding for this purpose had been received from Government as a separate grant however, in the current year with very little warning this had not been the case. This would need to be absorbed by the HNB and had added significant additional pressure to the block and would also be a pressure the following year. The other area of sustained continuous pressure was top-up funding. This was money needed by schools to support children with EHCPs. Neither of these areas would have been known at Quarter Three however, had since surfaced and it was important that this information was shared with the Forum at the earliest opportunity.

Jane Seymour was of the understanding that the pension costs had been added in Quarter Four and top up costs had been recalculated for EHCPs in mainstream schools and special schools, which constantly changed throughout the year.

Gemma Piper queried if further top-ups needed to be added going forward given a number of specialist private providers were popping up locally and these were often very costly.

Ian Pearson reported that going forward pension costs would need to be included in budget setting. The LA was due to meet with the DfE regarding the HNB and the matter of the additional pensions costs would be raised given the pressure the block was already under. Regarding top-up costs there were two elements to consider. Firstly as mentioned there were a number of new provisions in the area and this could result in placements that incurred additional costs. Secondly there were top-up rates, which were based on assumptions of levels of support. Ian Pearson stated that when work took place to build the budget for 2023/24 all issues would need to be taken in to account, which were also being compounded by increasing numbers. Ian Pearson reported that the budget for 2022/23 had already been set so they would have to manage within the funding available.

RESOLVED that:

• Top-up rates and whether these were appropriate to support schools; new resources in the area and additional pension costs all needed to be taken in to consideration when setting the budget for 2023/24.
• The Schools’ Forum noted the report.