Agenda and draft minutes

Adam Beazeley

Judith Kemplay

Jamie Tee

Alison Tones

Jill Wilkinson

Jennifer Hardy – Interim Head of Access to Learning

None.

Meetings held on 10 December 2024 and 14 January 2025 (for confirmation)

Forum agreed the minutes of the meetings held on 10 December 2024 and 14 January 2025 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

Report of Corporate Director for Children’s Integrated Services

Sadrul Alam, Interim Strategic Finance Business Partner, Donna Munday, Senior Commercial Business Partner and Nick Lee, Director of Education Services, presented the report and stated the following:

a)  the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) is a ring-fenced grant used to fund Education and enable Access to Education within Nottingham City;

b)  it is split into 4 key areas or Blocks - Schools Block, Early Years Block, Central Schools Services Block and the High Needs Block;

c)  previously, a significant DSG surplus had been built up over several years at Nottingham City. However, recently there has been a significant increase in costs, which has caused in-year deficits to occur resulting in a need to draw previously accumulated surplus DSG Reserves;

d)  this is a centrally held Surplus Reserve and is distinct from Balances held by individual maintained schools and academies (some of which are in deficit);

e)  the 2023-24 budget had planned to increase the overall balance of DSG reserves by £2m, however, due to an overall in-year overspend, no contribution was made. Due to the in-year overspend, a drawdown from reserves of £2.7m, reflecting the impact of the 2023-24 deficit, was made;

f)  a more detailed breakdown for each of the 4 Blocks can be found at section 3 of the report;

g)  the High-Needs Block Recovery Plan is underway, led by the services area and the Transformation Team, with support from finance colleagues;

h)  the appendix to the report shows a line-by-line breakdown of HNB spend, what each budget was for, and what the forecasted outturn is currently;

i)  the draft Plan was presented to the leader and Commissioners recently, with more detailed Plan and costings being re-presented to them by the end of the month. It should then be available to share with schools etc by the end of May;

j)  the Plan focusses on 4 main areas of concern / work streams – permanent exclusions, High-Level Needs and allocation, Post 16, and sufficiency and cost of external placements;

k)  High-level Needs is a national concern, and local authorities, including Nottingham City, are waiting for Government to respond to the issues raised with them.

In response to a question, Mr Lee stated that the new Corporate Director, Sarah Nardone, is currently looking at the directorate structure and, once finalised, a structure chart for Children’s Services will be shared with Forum members and the wider schools community.

Resolved to note:

(1)  the Dedicated Schools Grant Revenue Budget Monitoring and forecasted Outturn positions;

(2)  that the Dedicated Schools Grant is experiencing substantial incremental pressures that are currently impacting the High Needs Block, projecting a revised deficit of £1.525million by the 2026-27 fiscal year relating to rising costs in alternative provision and exclusions.

Verbal update by Interim Head of Access to Learning

Nick Lee, Director of Children’s Services, updated Forum on the work of the Forum Working Group, and stated the following:

a)  the Group has been meeting fortnightly since January 2025 and has been mainly focussing on proposals around reducing permanent exclusions;

b)  various ideas have been put forward, and are being considered, including, but not limited to, the response to one-off incidents, a targeted offer, support mechanisms and reintegration;

c)  meetings have also been held outside of the Working Group with secondary Heads, where the bulk of exclusions sit, and Mr Lee would like to thank all those involved across the City for the collaborative work undertaken;

d)  Working Group meetings have now been paused, in light of the DSG financial situation as reported earlier, to allow assessment of what is affordable, what will have the biggest impact, and for the outcomes to be included in the High-Level Needs Plan referred to earlier. Mr Lee also expressed his gratitude to all those that had been part of the Working Group for being involved in the process and for their dedication to finding a solution.

For noting

The work plan was noted without discussion.

To note that the next meeting will be held at 1.45pm on Tuesday 24 June 2025

It was noted that the next meeting will be held remotely at 1.45pm on Tuesday 24 June 2025.