Agenda item

This report informs Schools Forum of the provisional DSG block funding allocations announced for 2023/24.

Folake Olufeko, Senior Finance Analyst, Brent Council, introduced the report to inform the Schools Forum of the provisional DSG block funding allocations announced for 2023/24. The Forum were asked to note the 2023/24 allocations that would form the basis of further detailed work to allocate funding to individual schools and settings at the January and February 2023 meetings, once final funding was confirmed.

Key points from the report were shared as follows:

·                High needs and central schools services blocks would increase by 2.7% nationally, equating to. £1.4 billion in 2023/24. However, London would see an overall increase of 2.4%.

·                In Brent, the overall Schools Block funding would increase by £2.964 million in 2023/24, representing a 1.16% increase. This was lower than the national percentage increase of 1.9% and lower than the average of 1.6% for Local Authorities (LAs) in London when compared to 2022/23 based on pupil numbers driving the allocation of funding. Primary pupil numbers had been declining across London and in Brent, resulting in lower DSG allocations. The funding floor would ensure that every school was allocated at least 0.5% more pupil-led funding per pupil compared to the 2022/23 allocation.

·                The minimum per pupil funding levels would increase by 3%, compared to 2022/23. This would ensure that next year every primary school would receive at least £4,405 per pupil and every secondary school at least £5,715. These amounts were still lower than the Brent 2022/23 average under the Local Funding Formula (LFF) of £5,508 for primary and £6,900 for secondary.

·                A further consultation, which closed in September 2022, focused on the implementation of the direct National Funding Formula (NFF) and the outcome of the consultation was expected to be published by December 2022. There were a number of proposals and those relevant to Brent included proposals in relation to the transfer of funds between blocks, to introduce some flexibility to allow local authorities to continue to have the option to implement transfers, particularly from the Schools Block to the High Needs Block and the determination of notional budgets for mainstream schools’ SEND support within the NFF.

·                The High Needs Block (HNB) would also see an increase of £570 million nationally, which represented a 6.4% increase compared to 2022/23. The NFF would ensure that every local authority received an increase of at least 5% per head of population, compared to 2022/23, and no more than 7%. Brent would receive the minimum increase of 5% equating to £3.5 million. This was below the London average of 5.8%. A key factor that had contributed to this outcome was changing demographic trends. As London was experiencing a low percentage increase in population, it would receive low percentage increases across various funding factors such as Free School Meals and population funding.  The additional £3.5 million was lower than the funding increase received in the past few years and was unlikely to be sufficient to cover the current 2022/23 forecasted imbalance between the High Needs expenditure and income and fund any further increases in demand for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) in 2023/24. The increase would also not be sufficient to cover the 2021/22 DSG deficit of £15.1 million.

·                The Central Block would see an overall 4.1% reduction nationally. This block consisted of funding for ongoing responsibilities, which would increase by 2.2%, while funding for historic commitments within the block would decrease by a further 20% from 2022/23.

·                The outcome of the DfE, Early Years Block NFF consultation, which ended on 16th September 2022 was expected in December 2022. One of the proposals in the consultation was to roll the Teachers Pay and Pensions grant (TPPG) into 3 and 4-year-old funding rates estimated as £0.13 and £0.56 into the Maintained Nursery Schools supplementary funding rate for Brent. The TPPG rates have been included in the comparative 2022/23 rates and were not increases to the funding block allocation.

·                The illustrative allocations to local authorities were based on the part time equivalent January 2021 census data, with final allocations based on the January 2022 census data due to be presented at the Schools Forum meeting in January 2023.

·                Indicative rate increases for the Block were shared as follows, nationally, the 2-year-old rate would see increases ranging from 1% to a maximum 8.6%. The London average was 8.3%, however Brent would see an increase of 7.6%. Nationally, the 3 and 4 year old rates would see increased funding ranging from 1% to a maximum of 4.5%. The average increase for London was 1.7%, Brent would see an increase of £0.06, which represented a 1% increase from £5.81 for 2022/23 (including the illustrative TPPG rate) to £5.87.

·                The Maintained Nursery Schools Supplementary (MNS) funding would see a £0.14 increase, this included an illustrative amount for the TPPG; the rate would increase from £4.99 to £5.13.

·                There was also a proposal to introduce a minimum hourly funding rate and a cap on the hourly funding rate for MNS supplementary funding. The implications of this proposal for Brent would see nurseries’ MNS funding being driven by take-up hours as opposed to the current funding methodology of allocating a £175k lump-sum and funding towards National Non-Domestic Business Rates (NNDR)

·                In 2022/23, the number of Brent schools projecting an in-year deficit had increased to 67%. 23% of these schools planned to use over 50% of reserves to balance their budgets. Schools were feeling the impact of rising inflationary costs and increases in energy prices alongside the prospect of teachers pay increasing by 5% in 2022/23 and starting salaries rising by 8.9% to £30k.

·                The DfE expected schools to manage these pressures within the allocated funding increase of 3.6% in 2022/23 and 1.2% expected in 2023/24. A number of Brent schools were also experiencing falling rolls that in turn had significantly reduced their funding. The Forum noted that the impacts of reduced funding had caused schools to have to make difficult strategic decisions to mitigate the impact of this.

The Chair thanked officers for the report before proceeding to invite the Forum to ask

any questions they may have, with the following queries raised:

·                Forum members felt it was important to highlight the level of challenge faced by schools who were trying to balance providing pupils with high quality education with continually decreasing budgets, this was further exacerbated by Brent teachers being paid at an inner London salary despite Brent being funded on an outer London scale.

·                Officers acknowledged the scale of the budgetary pressures that schools were under, the Forum were further advised that there was not likely to be any uplift in funding in the short term, this highlighted the need for schools to continue to work together to explore how to manage smaller budgets whilst still providing a high standard of education.

·                Forum members from Nursery settings advised that they were seeing an increase in 2, 3, and 4 year old funding uptake and queried if this was not the case across the borough, what action was being taken to encourage families to take up the nursery funding available, particularly as Nursery’s were in a position to offer early SEN support, safety and continuity for vulnerable children.

·                Officers welcomed the positive news that nursery numbers were increasing; however they were not yet at pre pandemic levels, it was confirmed that work was being done in Early Years to support families in terms of their entitlement to Early Years Funding.

·                Councillor Grahl, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Schools empathised with the issues raised and shared her frustration at the lack of funding received from central government given the detrimental impact this was having on schools budgets. The Forum were assured that lobbying through the LGA continued to take place and the Administration in Brent would continue to advocate for better funding.

As no further queries were raised the Forum RESOLVED to note the 2023/24 allocations that would form the basis of further detailed work to allocate funding to individual schools and settings at the January and February 2023 meetings, once final funding had been confirmed.