Agenda item
Dedicated Schools Budget 2022/23
This report sets out the proposed DSG Schools Budget for consultation and agreement by Schools Forum ahead of the Council budget being set and approved by full Council.
Minutes:
Olufunke Adediran, Head of Finance at Brent Council, introduced the report providing an update on the proposed DSG Schools Budget for 2022/2023.
In presenting the report the key points highlighted included:
· The final DSG block funding allocations had been announced in December 2021. Following the 2021 Spending Review, the government had announced that it would provide a Schools Supplementary Grant of £1.2bn, in addition to the DSG for mainstream schools. It had been estimated that Brent would receive £6.9m of this grant with school-level allocations to be published in Spring 2022. The grant would be available to primary, secondary, maintained nursery schools and Post 16 provisions to support cost pressures in respect of the 1.25% Health and Social Care Levy (Increased National Insurance Contributions) that would take effect from 2022/23 and other wider cost pressures. In addition the government had also announced an additional £325m in 2022/23 for Special Schools and other providers funded from the High Needs Block (HNB) through a top up of the HNB DSG. This represented an increase of 4% to the High Needs allocations announced in July 2021 with Brent estimated to receive an additional £2.9m as a result.
· The breakdown of the 2022/23 Brent DSG Funding Allocations, as detailed in section 3 and Table 1 of the report. The increase in relation to the Schools Block totalled £2.025m with an increase of £5.5m in relation to the HNB allocation compared to 2021/2022. Whilst this represented an increase of 8.3% the Forum noted that the 2021/22 HNB expenditure budget was currently forecast to spend £71.5m. This was inclusive of £7.6m recouped for Brent pupils with high needs placed in other local authorities, however given the continued increase in the number of children with Education, Health and Care plans (EHCPs) the Forum was also being asked to approve, in addition to the measures outlined in the DSG deficit recovery plan, the recommended transfer of 0.5% from the Schools Block to the HNB to mitigate the growing demand. This would equate to a transfer of £1.2m bringing the HNB budget to £73.1m with members noting that a more detailed breakdown of the HNB budget would be presented to Schools Forum in February 2022.
· The Early Years Block allocations had also been published in December 2021, with detailed provided in section 3.7 of the report. The Forum were advised that whilst funding had increased under the Early Years National Funding Formula for Early Years Provision at a per pupil level, there had been a reduction in overall funding of £1.4m mainly due to a decrease in children requiring early years provision, following repeated lockdowns from March 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic with a separate report having been provided for consideration by the Forum on the agenda.
· In terms of the Central Schools Services Block funding the Forum was advised this had been confirmed at £2.1m. This included funding for ongoing responsibilities as well as funding for historic pension costs for centrally employed teachers. The allocation represented a decrease across both elements of £0.155m compared to 2021/22.
· The exclusion, within the mainstream funding formula of £1.9m from the Schools Block funding clawed back by the DfE to cover payments for Non Domestic Rates directly to billing authorities on behalf of schools.
· In terms of de-delegated items the Forum was advised of the proposal to fund the cost of school redundancies (which in exceptional circumstances were eligible to be funded centrally), from the contingencies with a current budget of £175k as shown in Table 2 of the report. In addition the Forum was advised of the adjustments made to the per pupil rates in line with the decrease in pupil numbers in order to maintain the same level of funding for contingencies, licences and staff costs cover as in 2021/22, with full details on the proposed de delegated items detailed within section 6 and Table 2 of the report.
· In terms of Funding Formula Rates the Forum noted the details provided on the funding factor rates as set out in Appendix A of the report, with a minimum funding guarantee set at 1.5%. This had followed consultation with Schools and endorsement by the Forum in November 21 to change the local funding factors to enable a gradual move towards the National Funding Formula, as detailed within section 7 of the report. Further details were provided within Appendix B of the report on the impact by individual schools.
· The growth budget in 2021/22 had been £2.25m and was expected to spend to budget. It was proposed to retain the current growth budget and use any surplus generated by the Choice and Fair Access Interview (CAFAI) projects coming to an end (currently anticipated at £243k)to fund the projected growth in the Secondary phase.
No further questions or issues were raised in relation to the report and as a result the Forum RESOLVED
(1) In line with 2021/22, to approve the transfer of £1.2m (0.5%) from the Schools Block to support the High Needs Block with it noted that Department for Education (DfE) regulations permit up to 0.5% of the Schools Block to be transferred subject to approval by the Forum.
(2) To note the additional funding allocations to Brent, as mentioned in the 2021 Spending Review.
(3) To recommend the budget for the DSG blocks, including the mainstream funding formula, to Full Council for approval.
The Chair the invited the Maintained School members represented on the Forum to consider the proposed de-delegation arrangements and as a result they RESOLVED to approve the proposed de-delegation arrangements, as set out within section 6 of the report, including the proposal to fund redundancy costs for school based staff from the de-delegated contingencies budget.
Supporting documents:
- 06. DSG Schools Budget 2022-23, item 7. PDF 261 KB
- 06a. Appendix A - Funding Formula Rates 2022-23, item 7. PDF 422 KB
- 06b. Appendix B - School Level Allocations 2022-23, item 7. PDF 485 KB