Agenda and minutes

No apologies were received.

None.

None.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting of the Schools Forum held on Thursday 14 November 2024 as a correct record.

(Agenda republished to include this item on 21 January 2025)

It was RESOLVED to approve the minutes of the previous meeting held on Thursday 14 November 2024 as a correct record.

To consider any actions arising from previous meetings.

None.

This report sets out the proposed DSG Schools Budget for 2025/26 for consultation and agreement by Schools Forum ahead of the Council budget being set and approved by Full Council in February 2025.

(Agenda republished to include this item on 21 January 2025)

Folake Olufeko (Head of Finance, Brent Council) introduced a report, which set out the proposed DSG Schools Budget for 2025/26 for consultation and agreement by Schools Forum.  The Forum noted the following key points as part of the update provided:

·            In July 2024 the DfE announced almost £1.1bn through the Core Schools Budget Grant (CSBG) to support schools with their overall costs in the 2024/25 financial year, in particular following confirmation of the 2024 teachers’ pay award.  Grant allocation for Brent mainstream schools (excluding Special Schools) in 2024/25 was £2.56m.  This grant has now been rolled into the National Funding Formula (NFF) and included in the baselines of 2025/26 Schools Block allocations.

·            Along with the CSBG, the teachers’ pay additional grant (TPAG) and teachers’ pension employer contribution grant (TPECG) had also been rolled into the Schools NFF for 2025/26.

·            Table 1 within the report showed that Brent had seen an 8.7% increase for the schools block within the DSG.

·            Brent was set to receive a total DSG funding allocation of £432m in 2025/26 compared to £396m in 2024/25.  This represented an overall increase of £36m.

·            The growth funding allocation had increased to £1.8m compared to £1.2m in 2024/25.  This allocation was based on the difference between the number of pupils on roll in each school between the October 2023 and October 2024 school censuses.

·            The final High Needs Block (HNB) allocation had been announced as £90.3m.  This is £5.3m more than the allocation for 2024/25 and represents a funding increase of 6.3%. 

·            The 6.3% increase in funding in 2025/26 was considerably less than the 12% increase seen in EHCPs from September 2023 to September 2024.  It would, however, contribute towards funding any further additional pressures due to continued increases in the number of ECHPs.  A detailed breakdown of the HNB budget will be presented to Schools Forum in February 2025.

·            The government planned to continue the expanded roll out of funded childcare hours for parents of children from 9-months-old, up to 3- and 4-year-olds. Brent’s allocation of the Early Years’ grant for 2025/26 was £41.4m and this represented an increase of £7.1m (21%) compared to the last financial year, with the most significant changes reflected against the 2-year-old working parents’ entitlement which would increase by £1.9m ((58%) and under 2-year-old working parent entitlement set to increase by £4.2m (128%) based on the expansion of hours to 30-hours from September 2025.  Brent’s rates for the new financial year would rise to £13.32 for under 2s, £9.77 for two-year-olds and £6.80 for 3-and 4-year-olds.  Funding for Brent’s Maintained Nursery Supplementary Grant was set to increase by 13% to £1m at a rate of £7.08 per hour.

·            In 2025/26, the Central Schools Services Block (CSSB) would increase nationally for ongoing responsibilities that local authorities continue to have for all schools, while those local authorities in receipt of funding for historic commitments i.e. pensions will see a decrease.

·            In 2025/26, funding for the CSSB will incorporate allocations that were provided separately in 2024/25  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Following the confirmation of the provisional DSG Early Years’ (EY) Block funding for Brent, this report seeks Schools Forum endorsement of the local EY Funding Formula for 2025/26.

(Agenda republished to include this item on 21 January 2025)

Folake Olufeko (Head of Finance, Brent Council) introduced a report, seeking Schools Forum endorsement of the Early Years (EY) Funding Formula for 2025/26 with the following key points highlighted as part of the update provided:

·       The 2025-26 EY Block funding for Brent was £41.4m, an increase of £7.1m from 2024-25 allocations.  This included:

Ø  a universal base rate for Brent providers for 3 and 4-year-old funding of £5.76 per hour.

Ø  an allocation for deprivation supplement of 10% from the 3 and 4-year-old funding allocation and a discontinuation of the 2% quality supplement as agreed by the EY Subgroup of the Forum 2 years ago.

Ø  a base rate of £9.77 to pay Brent providers for the additional support (formerly known as the disadvantaged) 2-year-old entitlement.  This represented a 2.4% increase of £0.23 from £9.54 in 2024/25.

Ø  a reduction from 5% to 4% centrally retained funding by the local authority from 3 and 4-year-old funding, following the DfE’s mandatory requirement to pass through a minimum of 96% of this funding to early years providers.

Ø  an introduction of a 2% centrally retained funding by the local authority from 9-months old to 2-year-old working parents with no central expenditure deductions from the 2-year-old additional support entitlement to support the uptake of provision for this cohort.

Ø  an allocation of £0.587m for special educational needs inclusion funds (SENIF), in line with the DfE’s expectation that local authorities earmarked this funding for children with special educational needs (SEN) eligible for or taking up the new and existing entitlements.

·       The expectation that local authorities would announce their funding rates to childcare providers by 28 February 2025, which the government intends to mandate as a requirement in the regulations from the financial year 2026-27.

·       In the summer of 2023, the previous government consulted on the minimum pass-through requirement and outlined its intention to increase this from 95% to 97% once the new entitlements were sufficiently embedded.  That change had now been introduced with a minimum pass-through requirement for local authorities increased from 95% to 96% for 2025/26.  This new requirement would apply separately to all early years’ entitlements from 9 months to 4 years old.  Whilst the increased pass-through rate had resulted in a reduction of £0.2m from the previously allocated central spend that was deducted from the 3 and 4-year-old funding, this impact had been mitigated by a 2% deduction from the under 2- to 3-year-old working parent entitlement, resulting in an increased allocation of £17k for central expenditure from 2024/25. 

·       In line with the DfE’s expectation that local authorities have SENIFs for all children with SEN eligible for or taking up the new and existing entitlements, it was proposed to include a contribution from the new free entitlements for children of working parents aged 9 months to 3-years-old, at the same rate of £0.13p which equates to £141k.

·       Local authorities with MNS will continue to receive supplementary funding for the 2025/26 financial year.  The provisional allocation for Brent is £1.0m compared to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

No items of urgent business were raised for consideration at the meeting.

To note the schedule of dates for future meetings during 2024/25 as follows:

·             Thursday 13 February 2025

Unless otherwise notified all meetings to be held online starting at 6pm.

To note the schedule of dates for the remaining meetings during 2024 - 245 as follows:

•         Thursday 13 February 2025 at 6pm via Zoom