Agenda item

The Forum received a report that outlined the changes to the Education Services Grant (ESG) in the financial year 2017-18 with part of the grant included for the first time in the DSG Schools Block.

The report informed that for 2017-18 only, Local Authorities were allocated a transitional general rate of £66 per pupil in maintained schools for the period April to August 2017.  The initial allocation based on the number of maintained schools in Havering in November 2016 was £606,055.  The first 50% instalment would be released on 30 April 2017 to take into account any schools that have become academies up to and including April.  The second 50% instalment would take into account any school that had become academies up to and including 1 August.  With consultation on academy conversion already published for some schools, the final transitional grant received by the LA will be less than the £606k.

The report informed that Havering’s initial grant allocation for 2016-17 was £2,336,243 which had been used to fund LA statutory services.  It was noted that by the end of the financial year the fund would have reduced to take into account academy conversions during the year.

The Forum noted that the £15 per pupil for retained duties would continue although it would be added to the Schools Block of the DSG and as a result it would be £589k more than in previous years.  The approval of the Forum was being sought to allocate the funding to the LA in order to meet central costs.

The report informed the Forum that the transfer to the DSG would result in a shortfall against the £2.3m allocated in 2016-17 to meet central costs. Attention was drawn to the Learning and Achievement savings of £590k that had been identified in 2017-18 to reduce the shortfall.  It was also noted that a reduction in service cost would reduce overheads charged to the service for corporate functions such as finance, ICT, HR and legal.

The report informed that the central services that were funded from the ESG were detailed in an appendix to the report and shown separate to all schools and academies and maintained schools.

The Forum noted that school improvement was not included in the list of services as a new £50m School Improvement Fund was to be introduced from September 2017 to support local authorities with their maintained schools.  In addition, a further £140m Strategic School Improvement Fund was to be introduced for academies and maintained schools.  The Forum was informed that the distribution mechanism for the Strategic School Improvement Fund was as yet unclear but Havering’s indicative allocation from the School Improvement Fund was £100k.

The report detailed that the revised funding arrangements for 2017-18 and introduced options for local authorities in recovering the funding to meet the costs of statutory services. 

These were:

(i)            To seek the approval of the Schools Funding Forum to allocate the retained duties element of the ESG that had been added to the Schools Block.

(ii)          To seek the approval of the LA maintained schools representatives of the Schools Funding Forum to de-delegate funding from the budgets of maintained schools to meet the cost of central services previously funded by the Education Services Grant.

Members of the Forum considered opinions to make representation to Members of Parliament to highlight the issue of the shortfall in schools funding.

The Forum were of the opinion that a joint approach be considered alongside neighbouring local authorities. The Strategic Finance Manger (DA) was to explore a collective approach.

The Schools Funding Forum:

(i)            agreed that the £589,000 ESG that was within the DSG Schools Block be allocated to meet LA statutory costs

(ii)          in the absence of further detail and consultation with head teacher colleagues were not able to agree the de-delegation of funding from maintained schools to support central costs relating to maintained schools