Agenda item

Following the confirmation of the provisional DSG Early Years’ (EY) Block funding for Brent, this report seeks Schools Forum approval of the local EY Funding Formula for 2023/24.

Folake Olufeko, Senior Finance Analyst at Brent Council introduced the report which outlined the provisional Early Years Block DSG funding allocation for Brent as supported by the Early Years Funding subgroup.

 In presenting the report key points highlighted included:

·             The government had announced a national £180m increase for 2023/24 with a further £20m announced to support Early Years providers with the additional National Living Wage costs associated with delivering the free childcare entitlements.

·             As a result of the national increase in funding, the Forum were advised that Brent would see a £1.3m increase compared to 2022/23, equating to a total fund of £24.5m. Additionally there had been an increase to 2, 3 and 4 year old funding rates as illustrated in Table 1, Section 3.7 of the report.

·             The Forum noted that the funding had been based on the figures from the January 2022 census and would be updated later in the year to reflect updated census figures.

·             The Forum were advised that following Government consultation the DfE had taken the decision to mainstream the teachers’ pay and pensions grant (TPPG) into the 2023/24 EYNFF. Subsequent concerns were raised from some local authorities that schools based nurseries would no longer receive the TPPG as a separate grant. In response to the concerns raised through the consultation, the government had increased the total planned value of funding supplements to no more than 12% of the total value of planned formula funding to providers, (the quality supplement) compared to 10% in 2022/23. This would allow local authorities the flexibility to use the additional 2% to fund pressures that some provides faced from addressing the need to pay contributions to the teachers’ pension scheme.

·             The Early Years Funding Sub group was consulted on the proposed methodology and agreed that the supplement should apply to Brent school based nurseries and PVI’s where they had qualified staff, maintained nurseries would be excluded from the equality supplement to avoid double funding as the maintained nursery supplement funding had been revised to an hourly funding rate that was inclusive of the teacher’s pay and pensions grant.

·             For 2023/24 the EYNFF rate for 2 year old funding would see an increase from £6.29 per hour to £6.84 per hour, it was proposed that 100% of the funding would be passed on to providers. This was possible due to the increased funding for 3 & 4 year olds which had resulted in increased allocations of 5% being retained for central expenditure.

·             The Forum noted that the Early Years Funding Sub Group had expressed gratitude for the increased funding, however were clear that funding remained far below the levels needed to effectively meet the needs of the service, particularly in light of the ongoing issues with recruitment, retention and increased numbers of children presenting with Special Educational Needs.

·             It was noted that although Maintained Nursery Schools (MNS) in Brent would continue to receive supplementary funding that would see a 6% increase this financial year, due to the TPPG now being included there would actually be a reduction in the totality of funding of approximately £44,000.

·             Currently one Brent MNS had been identified as potentially being significantly impacted by the reduced funding, they had been notified by the Local Authority so that they could put plans in place to mitigate the impacts of the cuts, with the Local Authority offering support where possible in terms of planning and preparation for the impending budgetary changes.

The Chair thanked Folake Olufeko for introducing the report before inviting the Forum to raise any questions or comments they may have in relation to the report, with the following issues raised:

·             Members noted that the 3 and 4 year old funding increases for providers were lower than the rate of inflation, therefore essentially there was reduction in funding. Officers advised that the Early Years Sub Group had also shared their high level of concern that their service is being significantly underfunded by central government.

·             Members queried what support was available to the Maintained Nursery School that was expected to be most adversely affected by reduced funding. Officers advised that a significant proportion of the funding was linked to take up hours, therefore the Council were supporting the nursery to promote their availability to local families with a view to increasing the take up numbers.

·             The Forum reiterated that they felt government funding should at the very least be in line with wage inflation, particularly as there was a shortage in qualified practitioners this meant that qualified practitioners were in a position to request a significantly higher salary than pre pandemic levels, further adding to the economic challenges faced by the Early Year’s Sector.

·             It was noted that although the government initiative to offer 30 hours of funding to 3 and 4 year olds was a positive initiative to support families and encourage take up of nursery places, due to the low value funding provided by the government for the funded places, providers whose cohort did not require top up hours were almost entirely government funded at a poor and unsustainable rate.

·             Officers advised that they were aware of the difficulties Early Years providers faced and as such sufficiency exercises at ward level were being actively undertaken to gain a greater understanding of where increased targeted support could be offered across the borough.

·             The Forum expressed that it would be helpful if details of how the Early Years Panel awarded additional funds could be expanded on at a future meeting to support transparency and a greater understanding of how the funds were discharged, including further information on the providers that were in receipt of the additional funds. Officers agreed to take this forward as an action to include some additional data in an Outturn report to the Schools Forum in June 2023.

The Chair thanked members for their contributions to the discussion on the report and noted the following Action Point to be taken forward:

Action Point 85 – The Forum to receive information at a future Schools Forum meeting detailing data on the distribution of additional funding awarded from the Early Years Panel.

Having established that Forum members had no further questions or comments in relation to the report, the Forum RESOLVED to:

1.              Endorse Brent’s EY Funding Formula for 2023/24, as supported by the EY Funding Subgroup. The following updates have been applied to the Early Years National Funding Formula (EYNFF):

a)              A universal base rate for Brent providers for 3 and 4-year-old funding of £4.84 per hour. This represents a 2.1% increase of £0.10p from £4.74 in 2022/23.

b)              An allocation for deprivation supplement for 3 and 4-year-old funding of 10%.

c)              A base rate for Brent providers for 2-year-old funding of £6.84. This represents an 11% increase of £0.68 from £6.16 in 2022/23.

d)              A cap on centrally retained funding by the local authority of 5% of the 3 and 4-year-old funding.

e)              The funding previously allocated under a disapplication for the 2017/18 academic year for additional 15-hour places for some 3 and 4-year-old based on local eligibility continues to be allocated to the Under 5s Nursery Panel, and both PVI and maintained providers can apply for this to ensure the funding continues to be targeted at vulnerable children.

f)                In line with the DfE’s proposal to roll the teachers’ pay and pension grant into the EYNFF and with the increase in the planned value of supplements to no more than 12% (from 10% previously), it is proposed that the additional 2% is used to introduce a quality supplement to the 3 and 4-year-old funding allocated to providers.