Agenda item

Michelle Sancho introduced the report (Agenda Item 14), which provided 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.

Michelle Sancho reported that there were four DSG funding blocks, which were set out in the report. The funding for each of the blocks was determined by a national funding formula. The DSG allocation for 2022/23 was £157.3m, which included £48.6m that funded academies and post-16 high needs places, which was paid directly by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) to schools. The DSG budget for 2022/23 had been built using the remaining grant of £108.7m.

For the 2022/23 budget, the Schools’ Forum agreed to transfer 0.25 percent of the Schools Block funding to the High Needs Block (HNB) amounting to £300k for invest to save projects.

The DSG expenditure budgets required for 2022/23 totalled £109.3m, which was £1.7m more than the funding available. Therefore a £1.7m in-year efficiency target was set.

The table under section 5.1 of the report showed the forecast position at the end of December 2022. The total forecast deficit on the DSG amounted to £6m, comprising £2.96m from previous years and a further £2.9m forecast overspend in-year. 

RESOLVED that the Schools’ Forum noted the report.