Agenda item

To receive benchmarking data produced by the DFE on planned Children’s Services expenditure for 2013-14.  Comparisons have been made to other London Boroughs as set out in the tables attached at Appendix B.

It was noted that in comparison to other London boroughs Havering was one of the lowest funded. However, the Forum was reassured that although generally towards the lower end of per pupil rankings, the financial decisions made in the allocation of resources were not out of line with other authorities.  Government cuts in spending had effected reductions in core spending and also the transfer of funding to academies. Members were asked to note that further cuts to Council budgets were planned in May 2014 although it was not yet known what the impact would be on Children’s Services and Education.   From DSG funding, Havering remained one of the highest delegators to schools.  Because of changing demographics in Havering the authority was gathering data in order to challenge government levels of funding.