Issue - decisions

Cabinet agreed that

1.      Schools Block (detail in Appendix A.2)

a.      the Schools Block budget be set at £253.423m for 2018/19 as per Table 1 above;

b.      the Growth Fund for established schools expanding in September 2018 be set at £2m;

c.       the lump sum per school value in the mainstream formula for primary and secondary schools is set at £125,000, as in 2017/18;

d.      rates funding for mainstream schools is based on each school’s expected requirements for 2018/19, as per ESFA guidance;

e.      the Minimum Funding Guarantee for mainstream schools is set at 0%, ensuring that the per pupil amount is no less than that for 2017/18;

f.        no capping or scaling should be applied to the formula for 2018/19;

g.      the formula factors used in 2017/18 should be increased by the same percentage to distribute the remaining available funding.

2.      Central School Services Block (detail in Appendix A.3)

a.      Subject to Schools Forum agreement, the Central School Services Block budget be set at £2.262m, leaving the indicated historic funding of £0.566m for prudential borrowing unallocated as it is not required.  In the event that the funding is not clawed back by the ESFA, a decision on how it is used can be decided at a later point.

3.      High Needs Block (detail in Appendix A.4)

a.      The High Needs Block budget be set at £50.951m for 2018/19 as per Appendix A.4.2;

b.      The measures to reduce the budget pressures set out in Table 2 in Appendix A.4 are agreed;

c.       The outline three year plan to balance the budget in Table 3 of Appendix A.4 is endorsed.

4.      Early Years Block (detail in Appendix A.5)

a.      the Early Years Block budget be set at £35.541m for 2018/19, noting that spend and DSG income will vary up or down, according to participation levels in each of the three terms;

b.      Funding for 3 and 4 year olds will be based on a rate of £4.88 per hour, with supplements for deprivation (13p), quality (16p) and Special Needs (25p).

c.       Funding for 2 year olds will be based on a rate of £5.40 per hour.

d.      The budget for the central team will be £1.476m, based on 28p per hour for 3&4 year olds and 3p per hour for 2 year olds, of which £1.276m will be allocated to the central Early Years Team and £0.200m will be used for commissioned speech and language therapy.

5.      Overall position

a.      Members note that expected school balances are expected to be in the region of £3m at the end of 2017/18 and the DSG position is expected to be overspent by £5.1m, so Council reserves will be needed to cover the net deficit until the underlying financial position, particularly in the High Needs budget, improves.