Agenda item

Joint report of the Corporate Director for People and the Director of Education Services

Nick Lee, Director for Education Services, introduced the report which sought to approve £1.025m in Early Years Central Expenditure for 2024/25. This decision will be the passporting of ring-fenced grant funding, so it will be subject to Department for Education grant conditions which must be considered as part of the internal council process relating to the S114 notice.

Collins Elechi, Interim Senior Commercial Partner (Schools) and Kathryn Bouchlaghem, Early Years Manager, delivered the report which outlined the following information:

(a)  there has been no change to the national Early Years (EY) funding formula since April 2017. With this level of central expenditure, the LA should comfortably meet the 95% pass-through regulation;

(b)  the potential base rate for two-year olds for 2024/25 will be confirmed by the Department for Education (DfE) in December. Officers have been working to the current rate which came into force in September;

(c)  in the breakdown of the Central Expenditure Budget seen in Table 1 of the report, £0.878m will be spend on staffing and £0.147m will be spend on rent, insurance and other non-pay costs to support the activity of the team;

(d)  Table 2 breaks down the costs of each staff post from the Central Expenditure Budget;

(e)  the EY settlement will be received in December and a full report will be presented to Schools Forum in January 2024;

(f)  the supplementary rate will feature an uplift of 1%, from £4.96 to £5.01 an increase of £0.05 for three- and four-year olds, and 31.8% from £5.66 to £7.46 increased by £1.80 for two-year olds;

(g)  The proposed central expenditure budget is based on a contribution of £0.960m from the three- and four-year old funding and £0.065m from two-year-old funding. Based on the expected hourly funding increases, the projected three- and four-year old funding allocation for 2024/25 will be £16.363m and our projected two-year old funding allocation will be £4.464m;

(h)  the consultation on the base rate for two-, three- and four-year olds will begin from now until January 2024;

(i)  Agreement Trialling has been an integral part of support for providers to raise outcomes for the youngest children in the City of Nottingham. This forum has addressed the trends identified from the Early Years Foundation Stage Project (EYFSP) data and have provided targeted support around understanding, resourcing and moderating the weakest areas of attainment;

(j)  in the academic year 2022/23, face-to-face training resumed, in addition to continuing with some online sessions, thus offering a blended approach. Sessions were accessed by 259 practitioners from 82 settings (16 PVI settings and 66 schools) and representatives from 10 of the 12 Academy Trusts within the city;

(k)  all LAs are ranked in terms of EY development. Last year, Nottingham City Council (NCC) was ranked 138 out of 152. This year, it was ranked 135 out of 152. The LA has made great progress in addressing EY development in a city which was disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Resolved to approve the Early Years Central Expenditure of £1.025m for 2024/25.