Agenda item

Melanie Ellis introduced the report (Agenda Item 14), which provided an update on the outturn position of the two schools that set a deficit budget in 2021/22 and three schools that planned to repay their deficits by the end of 2021/22.

Melanie Ellis reported that there had been two schools with a licensed deficit of £77k between them. The schools had closed the year with a small overall surplus.

There were three schools that had planned to repay their deficits in 2021/22 and all had managed to do so. Detail on these schools was included under section 5.2 of the report.

Melanie Ellis drew attention to section six of the report, which detailed the schools that had ended 2021/22 with unplanned deficits. There was a total closing deficit between these schools of about £153k. These were the schools that would be monitored closely going forward. The theme for what had caused the schools to go into deficit was staffing costs and wrap around care. Four of the five schools had their deficit license underway with the exception of Hermitage, which was planning to be out of deficit soon.

RESOLVED that the Schools’ Forum noted the report.