Agenda item

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The local authority is required to consult with schools on an annual basis about Dedicated Schools Grant funding it proposes to retain for the financial year ahead. More detail about the proposals is set out below.

• De-delegation (mainstream maintained schools)

A briefing paper showing the 2019-20 de-delegation arrangements was amongst today’s agenda papers. This included for each budget heading the deduction amounts per primary and secondary pupil to support each area of activity and the total amount collected to provide the necessary budget to operate each arrangement. No changes are proposed to the de-delegated arrangements and the amounts collected per pupil for financial year 2020-21.

• Central Schools Services Block (maintained schools and academies)

A paper was considered which set out the planned spend from the Central Schools Services Block for 2019-20 and a draft spending plan looking ahead to 2020-21. It is estimated that the Council’s CSSB allocation will reduce from £2.30m in 19-20 to £2.21m next year. Out of the illustrated £87k reduction, £53k relates to the next step in phasing to a lower eventual allocation but the rest is due to an unexpected 20% cut applied to Kirklees’ historic commitments allocation. The draft breakdown of the 2020-21 CSSB proposal is as follows…

The first five budget lines are not allowed to be increased from their original levels. There is no point in cutting the pensions budget (as the costs cannot be saved) even though some of the reduction in the CSSB allocation is linked to this line. The actual national copyright licence charge amount for 2020-21 should be revealed next month. The budget contribution to the statutory and regulatory duties the Council has for all pupils in the district acts as a balancing figure within this funding block. [A paper explaining what those duties are was also amongst today’s agenda papers]. The final CSSB block allocation for 2020-21 will be calculated from the number of pupils on the October 2019 census.

• Growth funding (maintained schools and academies)

2019-20 saw the introduction by the ESFA of a formula-based method to include an element of future growth funding within the DSG Schools Block allocation. The increase in the growth allocation (£698,500 in comparison to 2018-19) was retained in 2019-20 and added to the existing Pupil Growth Fund of £600,000. This was done in anticipation of significant calls against the PGF for this year, particularly from the secondary sector as increased student numbers continue to feed through from the primary sector. The formula-based growth allocation is not easy to anticipate in advance as it uses the individual school-level ‘positive’ changes in number on roll when comparing the latest October pupil census with the previous October census. The actual growth allocation for 2020-21 will be published in December. The LA will be looking to retain any uncommitted element of the new growth allocation to again supplement the Pupil Growth Fund next year.

·         Funding retained within the Early Years Block

The introduction of ’30 hours free childcare’ and the resulting increase in the number of providers eligible to claim funding for the free entitlement (mainly after school-clubs and childminders) has placed unprecedented volume pressures on the teams which support children, families and early learning and childcare providers. Efficiency improvements have helped ensure that these pressures can continue to be met within existing resources. The proposed Early Years Block retention amounts to 2.5% of the total allocation, well within the 5% level permitted by the government. 

Further consultation about 2020-21 Early Years funding and retention arrangements will be held with all local providers of the free entitlement with the aim of providing feedback to Schools Forum at a meeting early in the New Year.

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The consultation on retained budget arrangements for 2020-21 will be launched shortly to mainstream schools via Google Survey with the background papers setting out the proposals being placed on Perspective Lite. Schools and academies will have until noon on the 12^th December to complete the survey and the results will be made available to the Forum briefing meeting on 13^th December.