Issue - meetings

Joint report of the Corporate Directors for People and Finance and Resources

Nick Lee, Director of Education Services, introduced the report which requested the approval of the ongoing commitments within the CSSB for the financial year 2024/25. If approved, there will be requirement for individual services in receipt of this funding to go through the additional internal approvals. 

Julia Holmes, Senior Commercial Business Partner (Childrens and Education), delivered the report which outlined the following information:

(a)  approval is sought for ongoing budget commitments of £2.275m, the details of which are set out in Appendix A of the report. This is proposed to be funded from the estimated allocation for ongoing commitments of £1.767m from the ESFA for the financial year 2024/25 and subject to approval from Schools Forum £0.508m from a High Needs to Central Schools Services Block transfer as outlined in agenda item 4 – ‘Proposed approach to DSG budget setting 2024/25 by block’ - Recommendation 2; 

(b)  the estimated cost of Copyright Licences totalling £0.264m does not require approval as the licences are managed and procured by central government. The final figure will be updated and built into the Schools Budget report for the January Schools Forum meeting;

(c)  the indicative funding allocation is based on the October 2022 pupil numbers, but the final budgets will be based on the October 2023 pupil numbers once they have been received. Any additional funding as a result of increased pupil numbers is proposed to be allocated towards the costs of retained duties as there is a forecast shortfall in funding on this budget;

(d)  the services funded through ongoing commitments include the Admissions Team, copyright licences, administrative support for the Schools Forum, retained statutory duties and the Teachers Pay and Pension Contribution for centrally retained teachers;

(e)  from 2018/19 onwards, funding for LA’s ongoing responsibilities is calculated through a formula which is distributed on 90% per-pupil basic factor and 10% based on the deprivation factor. However, in the financial year 2024/25 a third factor has been introduced, a copyright licences per pupil factor to fund the additional costs of copyright licences that local authorities faced in 2023/24;

(f)  the total national budget for ongoing responsibilities in 2024/25 is around £304m.  This includes £5.5m to cover the increased cost of copyright licences that LA’s faced in 2023/24. 90% of this (c.£274m) forms the budget to be allocated to LA’s through the basic per-pupil factor (the remaining 10% (c.£30m) will be allocated through the deprivation factor;

(g)  LA’s continue to be protected so that the maximum per-pupil year-on-year reduction in funding for ongoing responsibilities is -2.5%, while the year-on-year gains cap will be set at the highest affordable rate of 5.51%. In 2024/25 Nottingham City will receive a 3.2% increase in the CSSB unit rate;

(h)  Table 2 highlights the CSSB unit rates of funding and total funding for ongoing responsibilities from 2019/20 to 2024/25. The rate for 2024/25 will be £40.88, which is a rise of £1.26 compared to the previous year. This figure includes an additional £0.67 per pupil for increased cost  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21