Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Cassie Lloyd Perrin, Angela Turner and Paul Russell.

The Forum was advised that information inviting Headteacher’s and Governors to apply to fill the vacant positions in the Schools Forum would be advertised via the Headteacher’s and Governor’s Bulletins at their next publication at the end of February 2023.

None.

None.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting held on 19^th January 2023 as a correct record.

It was RESOLVED to approve the minutes of the previous meeting held on 19 January 2023 as a correct record.

To consider any actions arising from previous meetings.

·       Action Point 82. -  The Forum required further clarification to be sought on the issue of Brent teaching staff being paid an inner London salary despite Brent being funded at an outer London scale. Officers advised that this had been a historical decision to attract teaching staff in to the borough, however acknowledged the financial challenges this raised for schools in the current economic climate. Officers agreed to raise the disparity in funding with the DfE and update the Schools Forum when a response had been received.

·       Action Point 83 - The Forum requested to see the criteria that schools were required to meet in order to request support from the Schools Facing Financial Difficulties Fund (SFFD).

·       Action Point 84 – The Forum required a future report that illustrates the tracking of the redundancy costs requested and the savings those schools struggling financially have achieved as a result of the support received from the redundancy pot to support monitoring the benefits of having a redundancy pot.

·       Action 85 – The Forum requested further information at a future meeting detailing data on the distribution of additional funding awarded by the Early Years Panel.

Action Point 82: The Forum was advised that an update in relation to the Council seeking further information from the DfE regarding the disparity in funding received from the DfE to support the inner London salary that Brent teaching staff were paid on was addressed in Item 6 - Dedicated Schools Grant Schools Budget 2023/24 report.

Action Point 83: The Forum was advised that an update in relation to the application criteria for schools to access the Schools Facing Financial Difficulties Fund (SFFD) was addressed in Item 6 - Dedicated Schools Grant Schools Budget 2023/24 report.

Action Point 84: The Forum was advised that an update would be provided at a future meeting on the action to provide a report to illustrate the tracking of the redundancy costs in relation to the savings schools had made.

Action Point 85 The Forum was advised that an update would be provided at a future meeting in relation to the Committee request to receive further data on the distribution of additional funding awarded by the Early Years Panel.

This report provides Schools Forum with an update on the forecast financial position for 2022/23. The reported position is against the budget set in consultation with Schools Forum and submitted to the Department for Education (DfE) on the Section 251 budget return.

Olufunke Adediran, Head of Finance at Brent Council, introduced the report that set out an update on the forecast financial position for 2022/23. The position was reported against the budget set in consultation with the Schools Forum and submitted to the Department for Education on the Section 251 budget return.

The Forum noted the following key points as part of the update provided:

·             The forecast Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) deficit was estimated at £2.1m to the year end 2022/23. The illustrated a £0.1m reduction compared to the position reported to Schools Forum in November 2022.

·             Table 1 in Section 4 of the report summarised the position of each of the DSG Blocks. The Schools Block reflected a pressure of £0.5m due to pressures against the growth funds that provided funding to schools when there were increased pupil numbers and an increased demand from schools to fund redundancy costs as a result of re-structures necessary due to falling rolls.

·             The High Needs Block carried a forecast overspend of £2.8m due to the continued rise in demand for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP’s) with an increasing complexity of need and rising costs of out of borough placements, the Forum noted this reflected a national trend as detailed in Table 2, section 6.3 of the report.

·             A deficit management plan was in place to recover the deficit in the long term, this would also be supported by the Delivering Better Value (DBV) in SEND programme, although the funding received via the DBV programme would not be used to directly add funds to mitigate the deficit, it was noted that efficiencies identified during the programme coupled with the longer term recovery actions and anticipated funding increases would aid a reduction in the deficit. The Forum would receive an update on the DBV programme at a future meeting.

·             The Early Years Block was forecast to underspend by £1.0m, this was mainly due to an in year adjustment from the DfE to the EY Block funding in July 2022 which saw an increase of £1.2m due to an increase in take up hours seen in the January 2022 census. The Forum noted that the DfE was expected to make a further adjustment to the 2022/23 funding allocation based on the January 2023 census data, therefore it was proposed that this forecast underspend would be retained in reserves to mitigate the impact of any clawback due from the DfE following confirmation of the final funding position in July 2023.

·             The Central Block forecasted an underspend of £0.2m due to in year vacancies.

·             The Forum’s attention was drawn to Section 9.1 of the report that responded to Action Point 82 and confirmed that Brent was funded at an inner London scale to provide inner London salaries to teaching staff in Brent using an area cost adjustment in the National Funding Formula (NFF).

·             The Forum’s attention was drawn to Section 9.2 of the report that responded to Action Point 83 to advise the Forum of the criteria that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To update the Schools Forum on the DSG High Needs Block Deficit Management Plan

Olufunke Adediran, Head of Finance introduced the report which updated the Forum on the DSG High Needs Block Deficit Management Plan. In presenting the report key points highlighted included:

·             The DSG carried forward a cumulative deficit of £15.1m from 2021/22 as a result of pressures against the High Needs Block (HNB). The 2022/23 forecast position at the end of January carried an in year deficit of £2.8m bringing the cumulative forecast deficit position against the DSG to £18.3m.

·             The Forum was advised that if no action was taken to mitigate the deficit, the deficit could reach £54m by 2026/7, however the 0.5% transfer from the Schools Block coupled with the increased funding from the DfE of 10% in 2023/24, then assuming an 8% increase in 2024/25 and 3% thereafter would support mitigating the deficit and reduce it to £52m.

·             Sharon Buckby, Head of Inclusion, advised the Forum that pressures on the HNB were directly related to the increased demand for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP) that had increased significantly over the last 6 years with fluctuations as a result of the pandemic, as illustrated in Section 3.2, Table 1 of the accompanying report.

·             Increased need had been demonstrated across the Early Years, it was felt this could be attributed to the lost opportunities for social and educational exposure for children during the pandemic that had impacted upon specific areas of development, such as speech and language and social communication. In response to this the DBV programme in Brent would be specifically looking at the 0-7 year old cohort preventing the need for EHCP’s or moving to time limited EHCP’s for a third of the cohort.

·             It remained a priority to work closely with SENCO’s and Headteacher’s to gain a greater understanding of how to provide efficient effective early intervention to support improved outcomes for children and young people in Brent.

·             In the challenging financial climate, it was recognised that improvements should be made in progressively using joint resources more effectively with health services and neighbouring boroughs to maximise service delivery for children and young people in Brent.

·             The Forum was advised that the Management Plan would not recover the deficit by 2026/27 and could increase further particularly when considering the impact of possible additional financial pressures if HNB funding did not increase in line with the trend in demand for EHCP’s.

·             The regulations that were in place to carry forward a deficit balance against the DSG had been due to expire in 2022/23, however the statutory override had been extended for a further three years until 2025/26.

The Chair thanked officers for their report and asked Forum members if they had any questions in relation to the information provided. The following key points were discussed:

·             The Forum expressed gratitude for the recent meeting between Headteacher’s and senior leaders at the Council where information on training offers was shared, however the Forum felt it was it was paramount that the Council did not lose sight of how strongly school leaders  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To update the Schools Forum on the DSG High Needs Block Deficit Management Plan

Folake Olufeko, Senior Finance Analyst, introduced the report that informed Schools Forum of the detailed High Needs Block (HNB) budget for adoption in 2023/24, with the following key points highlighted:

·             The HNB budget for 2023/24 included the £1.2m Schools Block transfer and a HNB top up of £3.5m allocated to Brent following the Autumn statement 2022 bringing the total budget to £83.5m, however there would be a claw back of £8.6m from the DfE to be paid directly to Academies, leaving a balance of £74.9m.

·             Due to the increased need for specialist provision placements, there had been several changes to the funding and top up funding budgets as illustrated in Appendix 1 of the report.

·             The HNB budget included a funding allocation of £0.3m for two new ARP’s, Newfield Primary, due to open in April 2023 and Elsley Primary, due to open in September 2023, plus an allocation of £0.2m for the Sunshine Inclusion Base at Willow Family Wellbeing Centre

·             The SEN services budget was notable due to the SEN transport costs that would be covered by the General Fund in 23/24 not the DSG budget.

·             The budget was threatened by the risk of rising inflation prices for SEND provision in out of borough placements and independent settings where provisions were also seeking over inflationary prices to deal with pressures. It was felt this could be partly mitigated by effective commissioning arrangements.

·             Officers advised that the budget had been discussed with the High Needs Sub Group ahead of the budget being presented to the Schools Forum,

The Chair invited The Forum to ask questions in relation to the information reported on the High Needs Block budget, as the Forum had no further questions the Chair thanked officers for their report and the Forum RESOLVED to note the content of the report detailing the High Needs Block budget for adoption in 2023/24.

This report details the changes to be implemented to the Scheme for Financing Schools and the Schools Financial Regulations for the financial year 2023/24.

Olufunke Adediran, Head of Finance, introduced the report that detailed the changes to be implemented to the Scheme for Financing Schools and the Schools Financial Regulations for the financial year 2023/24. In sharing the report, the Forum were advised that all changes applied in the revision were in line with the March 2022 Department for Education’s Scheme for Financing Local Authority Maintained Schools – Statutory Guidance issued to Local Authorities, changes to the Local Authority’s own regulations, the EU Public Procurement Regulations and all the relevant regulations. The Forum’s attention was drawn to Appendix B of the report that reflected the changes to The Scheme for Financing Schools for 2023-24 and Appendix C, which reflected The Schools Financial Regulations for 2022-23

The Chair thanked officers for their report and invited Forum members to ask any questions they had on the information heard, as there were no queries raised the Chair invited the Maintained School members represented on the Forum to consider the schemes presented and as a result they RESOLVED to

(1)        To approve the amendments to the Scheme for Financing Schools 2023/24.

To note the amendments made to the Schools Financial Regulations 2023/24

The Chair had been notified prior to the meeting of an item of urgent business raised in relation to the recent announcement from the Mayor of London to provide free school meals for all primary school children for one academic year from September 2023. The Forum recognised this as a positive initiative however had concerns about how this could work in practice, in the ensuing discussion the following points were raised for consideration–

·             Infrastructure would need to be significantly increased to successfully provide meals for all primary school children and as such would require significant increased capital investment to fund these changes.

·             Increased staff capacity would need to be considered.

·             There would be implications on the timings of the school day to enable staff to serve the additional lunches.

·             There could be an impact on pupil premium funding as parents/carers were less likely to make the formal application for free school meals if their children would automatically receive them.

·             The Forum required further clarity as to whether additional funding would be provided to support the delivery of the programme including the staffing and infrastructure related costs discussed and not just the meals.

·             It was queried how special schools who were not entitled to free school meal funding would be impacted.

Councillor Grahl, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Schools advised the Forum that the initiative had been announced to support families in response to the growing issues around food poverty and the cost-of-living crisis. The Forum was assured that their concerns raised in relation to the successful implementation of the programme were issues that local Councillors had raised with the Mayor for London.  As the plans had only been recently announced local authorities were expecting a more detailed finance and delivery plan shortly, once this was received the information would be shared at a future Schools Forum.

Action Point 88 –

Schools Forum to be updated on the finances and implementation plan of the universal

free school meals for pupils in London.

To note the provisional schedule of dates for future meetings during 2023/24 as follows:

·       Tuesday 20 June 2023

·       Thursday 12 October 2023

·       Tuesday 5 December 2023 (additional date if needed)

·       Thursday 25 January 2024

·       Tuesday 20 February 2024

The Committee agreed to note the schedule of dates for future meetings during 2023/24 as follows:

·      Tuesday 20 June 2023

·      Thursday 12 October 2023

·      Tuesday 5 December 2023 (additional date if needed)

·      Thursday 25 January 2024

·      Tuesday 20 February 2024