Agenda item

Lisa Potts introduced the report (Agenda Item 7), which set out the budget proposal for services funded from the Central Schools’ Services Block (CSSB) of the Dedicated Schools’ Grant (DSG).

Lisa Potts explained that the CSSB covered a number of services, which were listed in the table in section 5.1 of the report. She highlighted a couple of areas that had seen increasing costs, including the school admissions team, which had additional work due to the influx of refugees and changes in school places, and the education welfare team, which was supporting more children. Lisa Potts reported that there had been a significant increase in the cost of the Capita system, which had moved to the cloud, resulting in a deficit in the current year. The Heads’ Funding Group (HFG) had requested a value for money review on the CSSB, which would be included in the CSSB report for 2026-2027. Lisa Potts invited questions on the report and no questions were raised.

The Chair invited the Forum to consider the recommendations set out in section two of the report and suggested that recommendation 2.1 and 2.2 be voted on together. It was proposed and seconded that the recommendation to agree the CSSB for 2025/26 be agreed, and a review be undertaken on the value for money of the services of the CSSB, in line with the recommendation from the HFG. At the vote with all Forum members the recommendations were approved.

RESOLVED that recommendations 2.1 and 2.2 were approved as set out above.