Agenda item

Joint report of the Corporate Director for Children and Adults and the Chief Finance Officer

Ceri Walters, Head of Commercial Finance, introduced the report setting out the recommendations of the Schools Forum Sub Group (SFSG) on specific items of expenditure for inclusion in the 2019/20 budget setting process.

Members of the SFSG explained how they had undertaken a rigorous review of the historic commitments, looking at supporting evidence provided by local authority officers, and were in agreement to recommend the approval of the historic commitments proposed.

Sophie Russell and Nick Lee briefly outlined the work done through the contribution to combined budgets in the areas of Family Support, Integrated Placements, Safeguarding Training and the Virtual School.

Janine Walker delivered a presentation on SEN Transport, which is a new commitment as part of the high needs block that requires Schools Forum approval. She highlighted the following:

(a)  there are four main factors which may determine if children or young people aged 5-16 are eligible for travel assistance. These are statutory walking distances, SEND or significant mobility problems, unsafe routes and extended rights;

(b)  the spend on travel assistance to schools and post 16 settings in the 2017/18 financial year was £2.8m, providing assistance to 470 children and young people;

(c)  the local authority has introduced a dynamic purchasing system for procurement of taxis and minibuses to reduce costs. Routes are also optimised, and the independent travel training scheme has been rolled out to schools;

(d)  Nottingham City has the lowest spend per head for 5-16 travel assistance, compared with statistical neighbours, and is the fourth lowest for post 16 transport;

(e)  The provision of SEND transport significantly drives down additional costs to the schools budget by ensuring that needs are met within the city and avoiding the need to place children in costly non maintained and independent provision.

RESOLVED to

(1)  approve the historic commitments set out below totalling £6.579m:

(2)  note the additional historical detail set out in Appendix B of the report.