Agenda item

Lisa Potts introduced the report (Agenda Item 7), which aimed to update the Schools’ Forum on the deficit recovery for the Early Years Block.

Lisa Potts reported that they now had the outturn figures for 2021/22. This was also the first year that a deficit recovery plan had been in place for the block. The deficit had reduced by about £56k which was lower than the target of £130k. The plan had been to make lower savings in the first two years of the five deficit recovery plan but there was concern that achieved savings in the first year had been lower than planned. The overall deficit in the block had reduced from £970k to £914k.

Lisa Potts reported that the deficit recovery plan would be reviewed along with the rates for 2023/24. If changes were required to the original deficit recovery plan then the Early Years Funding Group would need to be consulted.

Ian Pearson thanked Lisa Potts for her update and was aware that she and Avril Allenby were having regular conversations with the Early Years Funding Group on the matter. It was important to be aware that it was a very difficult budget to manage and it was important to be realistic about expectations and what could be delivered. The aim was to balance the budget in the block by the end of the five year deficit recovery plan period and due to planned savings not being achieved in the first year, those involved in the budget would need to look at remodelling the deficit recovery plan. Any remodelling would have to take in to account the impact on the different provider groups. Once the plan had been looked at again it would need to be brought back to the Forum for consideration. It was suggested that a report be brought back to the October round of meetings that provided a direction of travel and views from the Early Years Funding Group as part of the planning process. A more detailed plan would then need to be brought back for sign off at a later meeting. Paul Davey supported the proposal that further information on the direction of travel should be brought back to the next meeting of the Forum in October.

Reverend Mark Bennett stated that it was being heard that developmental losses as a result of covid had been substantial particularly in the lower years of primary school. Part of the challenge was getting children well educated at an early age whilst managing the funding model. If further detail was to be brought to a future meeting it would be helpful to know the impact operationally and whether the group of children that needed increased support were being reached.  Ian Pearson commented that a much more enlightened approach had been adopted in forming the current year’s budget because there had been recognition that children in early year’s settings had a range of needs that were not being addressed as effectively due to insufficient resources. There had been difficulties accessing speech and language services due to waiting times, so the Forum had transferred funding from the High Needs Block to put some additional resource into this area to address the issues. It was important that early years settings were supported, potentially through the High Needs Block or through the development of a prevention strategy, which the Council was currently working on. Children and families needed to be supported however, there was no easy solution and issues could not be solved solely by the Early Years Funding block. 

Catherine McLeod commented that the sector was extremely stressed and was facing a recruitment crises. It was understood that the block needed to achieve savings however Catherine McLeod stressed that it needed to be kept in mind how hard it was for the sector at the moment.

Cate Colston agreed that the plan should be re-visited along with the forecast, whilst considering what the possible ramifications were of any plans to save money. The Forum would need to take a view on how realistic and feasible any plans were. 

Maria Morgan referred to the comments made by Ian Pearson and reported that the Department for Education was also funding support for settings over the next two years as part of the covid recovery process. This would involve the three maintained nurseries supporting private, voluntary and independent settings in the district. The work was funded by the DfE so would be of no cost to the settings.

Ian Pearson referred to Catie Colston’s comments regarding the impact of achieving possible savings and highlighted that as part of the reporting and decision making process a full Equality Impact Assessment would have to be completed.

RESOLVED that:

• The Forum noted the report;
• A further report would be added to the work programme for October 2022 that provided a direction of travel regarding the deficit recovery plan for the Early Years Block including views from Early Years Funding Group.