Agenda and draft minutes

Adam Beazeley

Meeta Dave

Kerrie Henton

Tim Jeffs

Debbie Simon

Sandra Stapleton

Joe Turner

None.

Last meeting held on 08 October 2024 (for confirmation)

Forum agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 08 October 2024 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

To approve the appointment of Jamie Tee (Head Teacher, Berridge Primary) as a maintained primary representative.

It was agreed to appoint Jamie Tee, Head Teacher at Berridge Primary, as a maintained primary representative of Forum.

Sadrul Alam, Interim Strategic Finance Business Partner, presented the report, which informed members of the Dedicated School Grant income received for the financial year 2023/24, the expenditure incurred, the impact upon Statutory School Reserves and the anticipated future impact upon Reserves, and highlighted the following:

a)  the provisional Dedicated School Grant allocation was £344,819,000, the actual received was £344,092,473, giving an unplanned shortfall of £726,527 following in year adjustments by the Education and Skills Funding Agency. In year adjustments to the Dedicated School Grant are expected, which is why indicative budgets are issued ahead of the start of the financial year as they may be subject to change as allocations are amended during the financial year;

b)  the most significant of the net movements is the unplanned overspend in the High Needs Block, that not only removed the ability to make a contribution of £1,983,000 to the Statutory School Reserve, but also consumed the £600,000 contingency included in the High Needs Block Budget, as set out and agreed in the Schools Budget report to Forum on 17 January 2023;

c)  the increase seen in permanently excluded pupils would appear to be the main driver of overspending areas in the High Needs Block, along with the cost of Independent and Non-Maintained Special School Placements;

d)  in 2023/24, there was also a slight drop in the amounts paid to mainstream schools for High Level Needs, which would suggest that there were some schools choosing to permanently exclude, rather than invest in supporting pupils. This drop in High Level Needs did offset the cost in permanent exclusion in the last financial year. However, in the current financial year (2024/25), we are seeing a growth in both High Level Needs requests and permanent exclusions, often at a younger age.

During discussion, members stated that it would be helpful to have more information around exclusions, such as costs, efficiencies, how effective early support / intervention is, what is the City picture as a whole, are there specific wards / areas more affected than others and is there a need for more targeted support, such as ‘Include’.

Resolved to note the report.

Donna Munday, Senior Commercial Business Partner, presented the report, which updated Forum of the impact of the Autumn Statement upon SEND Funding, including an early indication of what the 2025/26 High Needs Block Budget may look like, and possible areas for consultation, and stated the following:

a)  on 6 November 2024, a Summary Policy Note for schools and high needs national funding formula 2025/26 was published by the Education and Skills Funding Agency following the announcement on 30 October 2024 that almost £1billion additional funding is being made available for High Needs;

b)  of this total, £480m is being set aside for allocation through a 2025/26 Core Schools Budget Grant for special schools and AP, which will also combine the high needs elements of the 2024/25 Teachers Pay Additional Grant, Teachers Pension Employers Contribution Grant, and full-year equivalent of the Core Schools Budget Grant. Details of this methodology are expected before the end of 2024;

c)  a further £145m is being set aside for allocations of high needs funding that are not calculated through the high needs National Funding Formula, and later National Funding Formula funding adjustments. The later adjustments include the impact of the October 2024 school census special school numbers used for the basic entitlement factor of the National Funding Formula, which is updated through the Dedicated Schools Grant allocations published in December 2024. These monies will also be received as part of the 2025/26 Budget settlement;

d)  the remainder will be allocated through the High Needs National Funding Formula.

Resolved to note the report.

Sadrul Alam, Interim Strategic Finance Business Partner, and Kathryn Bouchlaghem, Head of Service, Early Years, presented the report and stated the following:

a)  the national Early Years funding arrangements introduced in April 2017 included a national formula for allocating the Early Years block to Local Authorities, and regulations around the proportion of Early Years funding that can be retained for central spend;

b)  since its introduction, this proportion of retained central spend has been capped at 5%, with 95% being passported to the sector. The proportion able to be retained for central spend is expected to be decreased to 4% in 2025/26, with 96% being passported to the sector. This is expected to change again to 3% and 97% respectively once the new early year entitlements are fully embedded (subject to no national policy changes);

c)  approval is subject to compliance with this regulation when the 2025/26 Schools Budget is finalised;

d)  in addition, once the final settlement has been issued (expected week commencing 16 December 2024), the following actions will be undertaken:

·  consultations around the local funding formula for 2025/26 to be progressed by senior officers from Finance and Early Years, in discussion with Schools Forum Consultation Group;

·  base rates for 2025/26 will need to be established and confirmed by the Department for Education and we will be working towards ensuring that we can maintain and increase the 2024/25 mid-year base rate increase into 2025/26;

·  consideration of Early Years SEND elements which also affect schools (High Level Needs and Special Educational Needs Inclusion Funding).

e)  the requested Early Years central expenditure of £1.025m is at the same level as that approved for 2024/25. It is projected that this level of central expenditure is sufficient to maintain the costs of the team and the activity outlined in section 2 of the report.

Resolved to approve Early Years Central Expenditure of £1.025m for 2025/26.

Verbal update by Senior Commercial Business Partner

Susan Woodland, Senior Commercial Business Partner, updated Forum on the Schools Block Budget, and stated that the Government announced in October 2024 that there would be an additional £2.3bn for mainstream schools and young people with high needs, but the detail is still awaited, likely to be announced during week commencing 16 December 2024.

Nicholas Lee, Director of Education Services, presented the report, and stated the following:

a)  the Department for Education confirmed in January 2022 that the grant payment to local authorities that funds the provision of school improvement services to local authority maintained schools would reduce by 50% in 2022/23, and be removed entirely in 2023/24;

b)  in Nottingham, this grant forms part of the overall grant payment agreed with the Nottingham Schools Trust, who are commissioned by Nottingham City Council to deliver school improvement services to the remaining local authority maintained schools;

c)  to mitigate the adverse impact on the provision of school improvement services to maintained schools, the Department for Education has indicated it approves local authorities seeking de-delegation approval, via Schools Forum decisions, for the equivalent funding from maintained schools budget share;

d)  this report sets out the background, rationale for seeking the approval, and financial contribution required by maintained primary schools to fund the grant removal in the financial year 2025/26.

Resolved that maintained mainstream primary schools:

(1)  approved the de-delegation of funding to mitigate the reduction in the School Improvement, monitoring and brokerage grant received by Nottingham City Council, at a rate of £11.12 per pupil, to ensure that Nottingham Schools Trust can maintain an appropriate level of school improvement support in line with member school expectations;

(2)  noted that the total funding requested to be de-delegated by maintained mainstream primary schools is £0.121m.

As the report was only circulated 10 minutes prior to the meeting, it was agreed to defer this item to the January 2025 meeting to allow members sufficient time to read and respond to the proposals.

Nicholas Lee, Director of Education Services, presented the report, which updated Forum on the statutory and legislative health and safety responsibilities of the Local Authority in relation to maintenance and testing of maintained school properties, and how the funding, requested to be de-delegated, is used to support this, and stated the following:

a)  previously, maintained schools expressed a preference to be able to organise their health and safety tests and inspections themselves. During discussion between Pat and Sarah Fielding (Nottingham Schools Trust), Nicholas Lee (Director of Education Services) and David Thompson (Schools Health and Safety Manager), it was agreed that a report requesting the de-delegation of funding would be brought to Forum annually;

b)  in accordance with the ‘Schools and Early Years (England) Finance Regulations 2024’, the Local Authority are required to seek approval on an annual basis;

c)  as such, the report asks maintained primary schools if they would like to approve the de-delegation of funding for health and safety tests and inspections for the financial year 2025/26.

Members stated that the support received from David Thompson and his team is excellent, and that removing from schools the burden and responsibility of providing a safe environment for staff and pupils was the most sensible option.

Resolved

(1)  to note the statutory and legislative health and safety responsibilities of the Local Authority in relation to building maintenance of maintained primary and secondary schools, and the type of costs that the requested funding will be used to fund, as detailed in paragraph 1.2 of the report;

(2)  that maintained mainstream primary schools approved the de-delegation of health and safety building inspection funding for 2025/26, based on a rate of £8.58 per pupil, with a total estimated funding requirement for mainstream maintained primary schools of £0.094m, noting that an additional income of £0.003 will be sought from buy-back from maintained special schools, maintained Pupil Referral Units and maintained nurseries, making a total budget of £0.097m.

Lucy Juby, Pupil Place Planning and School Organisation Manager, presented the report and stated the following:

a)  as part of the budget setting process for the financial year 2025/26, the report outlines the proposed requirements of the Pupil Growth Contingency Fund for next year and seeks Forum's approval to allocate £0.540m for this purpose, to be used to fund pupil growth in both maintained schools and academies;

b)  as part of the budget setting process for 2025/26, the School Funding team must inform the Education and Skills Funding Agency on 22 January 2025 of the level of funding allocated for pupil growth for academies for the period April to August 2025, from the pupil growth contingency fund;

c)  Growth Funds are an established mechanism nationally to support expanding schools, and the ‘Department for Education Schools Forums: Operational and good practice guidance’ document from March 2021 identifies the creation of a fund and the agreement of criteria for pupil growth as one of the functions Schools Forums are responsible for deciding on;

d)  the Pupil Growth Contingency Fund is not currently required for primary growth payments, as all previous funding commitments for primary growth have been met, but it continues to provide funding to schools to meet the need for secondary school places;

e)  the City’s significant pupil growth started to impact on the secondary sector from 2017, therefore, an appropriate funding model was implemented to support this and, in April 2018, Schools Forum approved the criteria and methodology under which funding can be allocated to secondary schools (as detailed in appendix 2 of the report).Both primary and secondary criteria are updated annually to reflect the pay increases.

Resolved to

(1)  approve the allocation of £0.540m to support pupil growth in 2025/26 (as detailed in appendices 1 and 2 of the report);

(2)  note the:

(a)  Education and Skills Funding Agency requirement to allocate funding to academies for the period April to August 2025, but which will be reimbursed to the Local Authority’s Dedicated Schools Grant;

(b)  amount to be allocated (and reimbursed) is £0.230m;

(c)  total amount of academies’ individual school budget shares will be netted off against the pupil growth given out for this period, and the Authority's Dedicated Schools Grant for 2025/26 will be adjusted accordingly.

Mark Joshi, Head of SEND and Vulnerable Pupils, and Neil Brettell, SEND Service Manager, presented the report, which updated Forum on SEND capital projects and sufficiency plans and Specialist School Place Numbers.

During discussion, members:

a)  stated that they had misunderstood that the previous consultation was around providing capacity at a particular school for pupils already attending that school, not in respect of city-wide provision;

b)  raised concerns in respect of schools that had received High Needs capital funding to provide capacity but were yet to provide any places for pupils;

c)  were also concerned that academies could ‘opt out’ of the provision in the future, increasing demand for places at maintained schools.

In response, Mr Joshi stated that as the consultation was undertaken in 2023, it will be revisited in March 2025 with a view to reassessing the current need and the best use for the funding, and that SEND sufficiency will be linked into the current work being undertaken around the High Needs Block and Recovery Plan.

Resolved to agree continued adoption of the SEND Sufficiency Strategy 2023-28 (as detailed in the appendix to the report) and to note the progress made on SEND capital projects and towards SEND Sufficiency plans.

Verbal update by Chair of the Working Group

Jennifer Hardy, Head of Access to Learning, updated Forum in respect of the Working Group as follows:

a)  the 2 meetings held so far have focussed on the Inclusion Model;

b)  going forwards, the Group will be meeting on a fortnightly basis and will be looking at the High Needs Recovery Plan;

c)  it would be welcomed if more people would join the Group, especially from the Primary Early Years sector, and anyone wishing to become a member of the Working Group is asked to contact Jennifer at Jennifer.hardy@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

To note / discuss the work plan

Subject to inclusion at the January 2025 meeting of the deferred item 5(f), minute 22 above, the work plan was noted without discussion.

To note that the next meeting will be held remotely at 1.45pm on Tuesday 14 January 2025

It was noted that the next meeting will be held remotely at 1.45pm on Tuesday 14 January 2025.