Agenda and draft minutes

Tim Jeffs

Debbie Simon

None.

Report of Interim Corporate Director of Children’s and Education Services

Sadrul Alam, Strategic Business Partner, presented the report, which updated Forum members on the current Revenue Monitoring forecast for the 2024-25 Dedicated Schools Grant.

Resolved to note the report.

Report of Corporate Director for Finance and Resources

Donna Munday, Senior Commercial Business Partner, presented the report and stated that Forum is requested to note the provisional Dedicated Schools Grant High Needs Block Budget, as detailed in the report, and that the figures contained within the report are provisional and indicative and will be finalised following formal agreement at a full Council meeting in March 2025 of 2025/26 Service Budgets.

Resolved to

(1)  note a deficit budget is being set for the financial year 2025/26 that will reduce Reserves by a further £2m minimum;

(2)  agree to allocate £1m as a contribution to SEN Transport, noting that a proposal will be submitted to full Council in March 2025 to reduce this by £500k in 2025/26, a further £500k in 2026/27, and for the charges to be picked up by the Local Authority General Fund and, that should agreement be reached, then this will provide a contingency of £500k for 2025/26. (2024/25 contingency = £600k);

(3)  note a:

(a)  3% Inflationary uplift for Special Schools, Resource Bases and PRU’s;

(b)  3% Growth uplift for Post 16 provision, and 0% Inflationary uplift;

(c)  0% Growth uplift for independent/non-maintained special schools (INMSS) provision, and 0% Inflationary uplift.

Report of Interim Corporate Director of Children’s and Education Services

Sadrul Alam, Strategic Business Partner, presented the report, whichinformed Forum of the provisional Dedicated Schools Grant Early Years Block Budget for 2025/26, as provided by the Education and Skills Funding Agency, noting that the figures in the report are provisional and indicative and will be subject to formal agreement at a full Council meeting in March 2025.

Resolved to note the report.

Report of Corporate Director for Finance and Resources

Susan Woodland, Senior Commercial Business Partner, presented the report, which detailed the proposed school’s budget for the financial year 2025-26, noting that, where applicable, the local authority’s Medium Term Financial Plan incorporates the impact from the Dedicated Schools Grant.

Resolved to

(1)  approve the distribution of the school’s budgets as detailed in appendix A of the report;

(2)  note:

(a)  the overall indicative Dedicated Schools Grant allocation for Nottingham City for 2025-26 (as per table 1 of section 2.2.3 of the report);

(b)  that the Dedicated Schools Grant allocation will be updated in-year to reflect adjustments made by the Education and Skills Funding Agency;

(c)  the outcome of the school’s funding consultation (as per appendix C of the report);

(d)  that the submission date of the Authority Proforma Tool to the Education and Skills Funding Agency is 22 January 2025;

(e)  that the de-delegation of funding for Health and Safety Testing and School Improvement Services was approved at the meeting of Schools Forum held on 10 December 2024, and that those final figures have been included in the school’s budgets detailed in appendix A;

(f)  that the de-delegation element for funding for Union Duties Cover is being considered at item 8 of this meeting, therefore estimated figures have been included in the school’s budgets detailed in appendix A, and these will be updated once the decision on that item is known (see minute 36 below for decision).

Report of Corporate Director for Finance and Resources

Susan Woodland, Senior Commercial Business Partner, presented the report and stated the following:

a)  funding for some central services provided to schools by the Local Authority are funded through the Central Schools Services Block (CSSB) within the Dedicated Schools Grant;

b)  the funding given through the CSSB is split into two streams, funding for historic commitments and funding for ongoing commitments;

c)  the report seeks approval of both the historic and the ongoing commitments within the CSSB for the financial year 2025/26;

d)  approval is also being sought for the allocation of funding for SEN Transport in the financial year 2025/26, which is funded from the High Needs Block but is also classed by the Education and Skills Funding Agency as an historic commitment;

e)  appendix A of the report details a breakdown of all the commitments.

During discussion, members requested a more detailed breakdown of what copyrights and licenses are managed and procured by the Department for Education and available to schools.

Resolved to

(1)  approve the historic and ongoing commitments totalling £3.906m for the financial year 2025/26, as set out in table 1 of section 2.1 and the additional detail set out in appendix A of the report;

(2)  note the increase to the admissions budget of £0.045m;

(3)  approve the SEN Transport budget of £1m;

(4)  note the estimated cost of £0.334m of the copyrights and licences managed and procured by the Department for Education, a more detailed breakdown of which is requested to be circulated after the meeting to members as an appendix to the minutes.

Report of Corporate Director for Finance and Resources

Elaine Harrison, HR Consultant, presented the report and stated the following:

a)  the report outlines the proposed funding arrangements for trade union facility time, for senior trade union representatives from schools, to attend negotiations and consultation meetings and to represent their members in schools during 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026;

b)  under the Schools and Early Years Finance Regulations 2023, maintained schools can agree to de-delegate funding for trade union facility time, which they have done since the financial year 2013/14;

c)  to reduce the cost on maintained schools, the arrangement is also offered to academies;

d)  the income generated pays for the salaries of the trade union representatives whilst carrying out trade union facility time duties;

e)  maintained schools and academies are reimbursed the salaries of the representatives who are employed by them, and this is done so that no school loses out as a consequence of a member of their staff carrying out trade union duties.

Resolved that mainstream primary schools:

(1)  approve the de-delegation of funding for senior trade union representatives at a rate of £2.15 per pupil, and a lump sum of £2,188 per school;

(2)  note that the:

a)  charges will generate a projected maintained primary schools buy-back income of £0.225m, based upon 72 maintained schools and academies opting into the scheme, which should provide income to achieve a breakeven position;

b)  total funding requested to be de-delegated by maintained mainstream primary schools is £84,883.

Interim Head of Access to Learning to report

Jennifer Hardy, Interim Head of Access to Learning, updated Forum as follows:

a)  Inclusion Model funding continued in the 2025/26 budget, with an allocation of funding to schools guaranteed until the end of the 2024/25 academic year, allowing consistency and stability until the end of the academic year.

b)  Local Authority officers and the Schools Forum Working Group are looking at all four areas of overspend in the High Needs Block (permanent exclusion costs, independent school places, high-level needs funding and post-16 funding), and a recovery plan will be developed and shared with Schools Forum, with a draft plan to be developed by April 2025, including future plans for the Inclusion Model;

c)  an Inclusion Manager has been recruited, and they will pick up the work of developing an Inclusion Strategy for the city;

d)  the Virtual School Head will oversee the Inclusion Manager, and the service area will be developed into Virtual School and Vulnerable Learners;

e)  the Inclusion Manager will engage with schools to consult on the Inclusion Model and Inclusion Strategy.

Resolved to note the update.

Interim Head of Access to Learning to report

Jennifer Hardy, Interim Head of Access to Learning, updated Forum of discussion points raised at the latest meeting of the Working Group as follows:

a)  officers are keen to expand the SFWG membership, particularly with representation from the 0–25 education partnership;

b)  SFWG meetings have been moved to fortnightly whilst officers develop a high needs recovery plan;

c)  the focus of the next meeting of SFWG will be on permanent exclusion trends for the last three years (by school and by key stage), and a more detailed analysis of the overspend in high level needs funding by key stage.

Resolved to note the update.

To note / discuss the work plan

The work plan was noted without discussion.

Remotely at 1.45pm on Tuesday 29 April 2025

Noted that the next meeting will be held remotely at 1.45pm on Tuesday 29 April 2025.