Agenda item

Michelle Sancho introduced the report (Agenda Item 12), which provided the forecast financial position of the services funded by the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), highlighting any under or over spends, and 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 £157.4m, which included £48.4m 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 £109m.

The DSG expenditure budgets required for 2022/23 totalled £110.7m, which was £1.7m more than the funding available. As a result, a £1.7m in-year efficiency target had been set against this in order to balance the DSG budget.

The forecast position at the end of January 2023 was detailed in Table One of the report and more detailed information was included in Appendix A. The Month Ten forecast showed an in-year forecast deficit of £3.2m, against the in-year efficiency target in the High Needs Block. When added to the cumulative deficit of £2.96m, the forecast year end deficit on the DSG was £6.2m. The majority of the reported £1m overspend on the High Needs Block related to pressures on top up funding.

Gemma Piper stated that the Education Welfare Service (EWO) was becoming a statutory requirement and asked if the deficit included an increase in funding for this. Michelle Sancho reported that the EWO Service currently had a statutory element and a traded element however with new Government requirements this would change from September 2023. The change had not impacted on the current figures presented in the report. The service was currently reconfiguring how it was going to deliver its services going forward with regards to reducing the traded element and increasing the statutory element. The service was currently funded by the Schools’ Block.

RESOLVED that the Schools’ Forum noted the report.