Agenda item

(i)            At the meeting of the Schools Funding Forum held on 18^th September 2014 the impact on LA funding of reductions in the Education Services Grant (ESG) and on Local Government grant was discussed.  Officers will provide an update at the meeting.

(ii)          One of the proposed savings is the budget currently held centrally for the commissioning of alternative provision.  Officers will present the paper at Appendix B.

(i)        Council savings

At the meeting held in September 2014 the Forum was briefed on potential areas of Council-wide savings.  Following a public consultation, some of these had been revised. These included a rearrangement of library opening hours so that the main libraries were open longer, reinstatement of some of the proposed cuts to youth services and the school library service would remain in place.

Within Learning and Achievement there would be a reduction of £100k within the meals on wheels service which is managed by School Catering and some savings in back office functions. Cashless catering was to be introduced and was being piloted in Frances Bardsley School for Girls. Once some teething problems had been overcome, administration was low in cashless systems and generally, were working well. Sales had gone up significantly in the trials, bringing in more revenue and with better control over the students’ diet in tracking their meals.

There was a further proposal to save £400k by April 2016 from the Children and Adults with Disabilities Team. It was agreed to pull a small group together to discuss how to achieve those results, with the Heads and SENCOs. A consideration was to move to statutory only services for SEN. Further information on this would follow.

To meet reductions in the Education Services Grant arising from the conversion of schools to academies, a saving in core costs of £1.3million had already been made when major restructures were carried out in Learning & Achievement.  There would be a further reduction in the grant to the Local authority (LA) every time another school converts.  

The ‘per pupil grant’ payment had also reduced by 25% over two years to £87 from April 2015.  This required a further reduction of about £740,000 although not all of it was in Learning & Achievement and may have impacted on non-Learning & Achievement school services.

There was a point at which it would not be possible to reduce costs any further by the amount required, and the Council’s Corporate Management Team were looking to see which options for April 2015 were viable.

The ESG was allocated according to the number of pupils attending LA maintained schools or academies, and statutory responsibilities of the local authority transferred to academies. The reduction in grant applied to academies as well although some protections applied.

(ii)       Alternative Provision (AP)

Paul Tinsley, Educational Support and Inclusion Services Manager introduced the paper at Appendix B.

One of the proposed savings was to the budget that is held centrally for the commissioning of alternative education.  This was of particular interest to secondary colleagues, and it was pointed out that funding- previously held centrally- had already been delegated to schools who were responsible for purchasing quality assured places from approved alternative providers.

The LA had continued to provide and fund an AP commissioner (Lee Clegg) who had taken on the role of supporting and advising schools and maintaining a register of AP providers that had been quality assured.

To retain Lee’s post, additional funding needed to be gained from schools and 50% of the cost of her work was to be offered as a traded service to secondary schools at £1,500 per school.

The paper produced included a list of benefits and assurances for schools when using the service.

Secondary head teachers commented that the service provided some support that was not currently received and considered that it would a service that schools would be interested in purchasing.