Agenda item

Ian Pearson introduced the report (Agenda Item 8), which reported on the forecast financial position of the services funded by the Dedicated Schools’ Grant (DSG), highlighting and under or overspends, and to highlight the cumulative deficit on the DSG.

The report provided an overview of the DSG, which was then made up of four budgets including the Schools Block, the Early Years Block, the High Needs Block and Central School Services Block. It provided an indication regarding whether each block was on track.

Ian Pearson drew attention to section 4.3 of the report, which detailed that for 2022/23 the budget had needed to be set at £1.7m above the allocation. There was good news as highlighted in section 5.2, that the quarter one forecast showed an in-year deficit of on £1.6m against the in-year efficiency target in the HNB, which was an improvement of £100k.

The report went on to detail the cumulative deficit, which was £2.96 against the HNB and the forecast year-end deficit on the DSG was £4.6m. It was possible that this figure could change as it was still early in the financial year. David Ramsden echoed Ian Pearson’s comments because they were often looking at overspends early in the year, so for there to be a £100k improvement was very positive. 

RESOLVED that the Schools’ Forum noted the report.