Agenda and minutes

Venue: CEME

Contact: David Allen  Email: david.allen@havering.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

24.

WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS, APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND ANNOUNCEMENT OF SUBSTITUTE MEMBERS OR OBSERVERS

Following requests for nominations to fill vacancies, two appointments have been made as follows:

 

Dave Waters, governor representative of LA maintained schools

Denise Broom, academy representative of secondary schools

 

Apologies for absence have been received from Dave Waters.

Minutes:

Members welcomed Denise Broom as the academy representative of secondary schools and noted the appointment of Dave Waters as the governor representative of Local Authority maintained schools.

 

Apologies for absence were received from Gary Pocock (Special Academy), and Dave Waters (Primary Maintained).  Vicki Fackler substituted for Gary Pocock at the meeting.

25.

TO AGREE THE MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 8 NOVEMBER 2018 pdf icon PDF 25 KB

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting of the Forum held on the 8 November 2018 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman, with an amendment to the typographical error whereby ‘challenged’ to be replaced with ‘channelled’ on page 4.

26.

MATTERS ARISING

Minutes:

 

The following matter arose from the minutes of the previous meeting:

 

·         Minute No. 21 Teachers’ Pension Increase refers: The Department for Education had launched a survey on which institutions would receive funding for the increase in employer contributions.  The funding would only apply to the financial year 2019-20 and the situation in subsequent years would be dependent on the spending review.

27.

HIGH NEEDS FUNDING pdf icon PDF 219 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members received a report on Havering’s allocation of funding for High Needs within the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) including the additional high needs funding that had been allocated by the Government for financial years 2018-19 and 2019-20.

 

The additional funding to Havering was £611,278 for each year.  It was insufficient to meet projected costs but would reduce the amount of the forecast overspend in both years.

 

High needs allocations to local authorities were announced on the 18 December 2018 and Havering’s allocation is shown in the table below with a comparison to 2018-19 funding:

 

 

Actual 2019/20 high needs NFF allocations, excluding basic entitlement factor and import/export adjustments (£m)

Mid – 2019 age 2-18 ONS population projection

2019-20 ACA – weighted basic entitlement factor unit rate (£)

Actual 2019-20 number of pupils in special schools/

academies (headcount)

2019-20 import / export adjustments (based on January 2018 census and February R06 2017/18 ILR.) (£m)

Additional high needs funding (£m)

2019-20 provisional total high needs block (£m)

2019-20

23.649

55,566

4,348.33

355.5

-0.516

0.611

25.290

2018-19

22.298

53,591

4,348.33

342

-0.516

0.611

23.885

Difference

1.351

1,975

0.00

12.5

0.000

0.000

1.405

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the Schools Funding Forum noted the report.

 

28.

SCHOOLS FUNDING 2019-20 pdf icon PDF 229 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members received a report which sought the approval of the Schools Funding Forum to the formula and funding values on which Havering’s schools and academies would be funded in the financial year 2019/20.

 

On the 8 November 2018, the Forum received a report on the Local Authority’s estimate of the Schools Block DSG funding that was to be received for financial year 2019-20 for distribution to schools and academies.  It was agreed at that meeting that the fairest option would be to ensure that every school received the 0.5% per pupil increase with the gains cap set at a level that was affordable at 2% per pupil.  The proposal was duly consulted upon with schools and no responses were received for the Forum to take into consideration.  Therefore the Local Authority was proposing to apply the formula that was agreed on the 8 November 2018.

 

The final School’s Block Settlement was received on the 18 December 2018, which confirmed that the proposals for a 0.5% per pupil increase and a gains cap of 2% per pupil could be implemented.  The Schools Block funding settlement for 2019-20 is set out below:

 

Schools block primary unit of funding £

Schools block secondary unit of funding £

Schools block primary pupils

Schools Block secondary pupils

Sub-total Schools Block £

Pupil Mobility

Rates

Growth funding

£

Total school’s block

£

4,054.28

5,494.97

22,118

14,447

169,055,649

63,051

2,098,445

2,498,944

173,716,089

 

The funding available for distribution to schools through the formula was £171,217,145.  To fund all schools and academies on the national funding formula values, applying a 0.5% mfg and a 2% gains cap would cost £171,404,334.  An allocation of £187,189 was therefore required from the contingency set aside to implement the national funding formula for a second year.

 

In 2018-19, Havering set a budget of £2.7m for pupil growth and £0.4m for Good and Outstanding schools with falling rolls.  Applying the same formula as in 2018-19, the estimated costs of growth arising in 2019-20 could be met from within the revised allocation.  LA officers expressed concern that the DFE allocation would be insufficient in future years once the protection element of the formula dropped out.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the School Funding Forum agreed that the Local Authority adopted the national funding formula rates for the funding of schools and academies in financial year 2019-20 and also ensure that all schools receive a minimum funding guarantee of 0.5% per pupil with gains capped at 2%.

29.

EARLY YEARS FUNDING 2019-20 pdf icon PDF 182 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members received a report which considered the Local Authority proposals for the funding of providers of early years education in financial year 2019-20 following notification by the Department for Education of indicative funding allocations and consultation with providers.

 

The DfE funding rate for Havering was £5.28 for 3 and 4 year olds and £5.66 for 2 year olds, the same as in 2018-19.  On the basis of current participation and anticipated growth, the Local Authority estimated that £16,946,754 funding would be received for 3 and 4 year olds in the 2019-20 financial year, and £2,179,151 for 2 year olds.

 

In 2018-19 the amount of funding retained centrally was within the 5% permitted at £730,000.  With an increase in participation in 2019-20 the financial value of the 5% had also increased.  During 2019-20 it was intended that the software supporting the submission and management of data would be reviewed which would increase the central costs.  Therefore an additional £70,000 was requested from the central retention.  Early Years Providers expressed disappointment that the funding would not go back into early years provision and believed that the funding for new software should be budgeted for elsewhere. 

 

As the DSG Early Years Block was allocated on the basis of a January census and estimates had to be made on the hours of provision to be funded that were not captured in the census. It was proposed that £572,057 be retained as contingency for 3 and 4 year olds and £100,100 for 2 year olds provision.  In response to concerns, it was explained that any unspent contingency would be communicated at the various forums at the year end and that any underspend would be contained in early years. 

 

Due to increasing pressures on the High Needs Block, it was proposed that the contribution to the Inclusion Fund be reduced from £100,000 to £50,000 and that the contribution from the Early Years Block be increased from £100,000 to £150,000.  

 

Havering had only used deprivation as a supplementary factor to allocate funding to providers, other than through the basic rate.   It was estimated that £500,000 of funding would be allocated through the deprivation factor, well within the 10% permitted through supplements.

 

It was proposed that the basic hourly rate of £4.65 for 3 and 4 year olds and £5.40 for 2 year olds be applied for 2019-20.  It was estimated that 2 and 4 year olds would cost a total of £14,924,700 and £2,079,035 for 2 year olds.  In response to some points made in the consultation it was explained that the Local Authority were restricted by the central government settlement in the amount they could fund providers but had ensured that any increases that were affordable and directed through the base rate funding for the 2 year old and 3/4 year old entitlement. The Local Authority was supportive of all providers, and were in continuous dialogue with central government on funding pressures across all educational establishments in the Local Authority.  It was noted that early years  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29.

30.

NEXT MEETINGS

Future meetings have been arranged as follows:

 

7th March 2019

13th June 2019

 

All meetings to be held at CEME at 8.30am.

Minutes:

Next meetings:

 

Future meetings ad been arranged as follows

·         7th March 2019

·         13th June 2019

All meetings to start at 8.30 a.m at CEME.

 

31.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Minutes:

There was no other business.