Issue - meetings

Report ED12040

Members of the Forum considered a report providing information on the Department for Education consultation currently being undertaken around the draft School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations 2013, together with additional grant conditions for the Dedicated Schools Grant.  The consultation would end on 21^st September 2012 and the Local Authority had provided a draft response to the proposed adjustments to how the Early Years Single Funding Formula would operate for disadvantaged two year olds, which members of the Forum were invited to comment on prior to submission.

The Head of Schools Finance Support highlighted a number of changes that had been made in the draft School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations 2013, which included the extension of the definition of the schools’ budget to include expenditure on young people aged 19 to 25 with learning difficulties, that the Schools’ Forum must approve the criteria on which any funding for pupil growth was allocated (such as for bulge classes and additional infant class funding) and for budgets to be determined by 15^th March for maintained schools and pupil referral units.  The changes in regulations also allowed local authorities to apply to the Secretary of State to include exceptional premises factors in their formula, to exclude factors from the minimum funding guarantee and to vary the basis of the pupil number count.  Under this change to the regulations, Bromley had already made an application to the Secretary of State for permission to exclude payments for bulge classes made in 2012/13 to prevent any duplication of funding and this had been agreed in principle but was not yet confirmed.

Alison Regester added her support to the draft consultation response to the proposed adjustments to how the Early Years Single Funding Formula would operate for disadvantaged two year olds, and noted the importance of building capacity in early years provision for younger children.

RESOLVED that the details within the consultation be noted and that the comments of members of the Forum on the proposed responses to the specified questions on funding for disadvantaged two year olds be noted.