Issue - meetings

The Forum considered details of the estimated Dedicated Schools Grant for 2013/14 based on the three funding blocks.  They also noted the initial allocations and estimated expenditure under each of the block using 2012/13 data and the issues/assumptions on which the data was based.

The Head of ECS Finance explained that the first part of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) was based on funding blocks.  His team had undertaken some initial work, on the allocations for each block, but it was very much a “first pass” and he hoped to receive more information in the next few days. Failing this further information was due to be received on 19^th December.  He asked the forum to identify how to use, if any, of the available headroom.  However they needed to be aware that the headroom may disappear as they moved forward.

The Forum then considered the 3 blocks separately:

High Needs

Members asked for the position of the SEN 2012/13 budget. Officers reported that, at present, it was slightly under spent.  They were currently working on the 2013/4 figures but did not envisage a growth.  These figures would be brought back to the Forum in the New Year.  The Assistant Director (Education) added that the SEN team were also working on efficiencies and that High needs was a very difficult area in which to predict expenditure.

Members of the Forum than asked about the 2 areas of prudential borrowing from 2012/13; £570k and £800k.  What would happen in 2013/14? The Head of ECS Finance explained that the £570k was as a result of an earlier invest to save which finished in 2012/13 and this would therefore not appear in the 2013/14 budget. The £800k was an invest to save payback for the Glebe which would continue to appear in the 2013/14 budget.

The 14-19 partnership representative asked if, for 16-19 year olds the figure included the element removed from the Further Education (FE) budget.  The Head of ECS Finance explained that the DfE were still not giving a clear outline of FE funding.  They wanted to know if it would be included in the DSG and were pressing the DfE for an answer.

Early Years

The Vice Chairman raised concerns about Early Years funding showing a funding shortfall of £825,000. He felt that Early Years’ providers could not possibly absorb this but he felt that the report did not reflect the potential position. The Head of ECS Finance explained that they had a contingency of £551k which could be used to free up some of the funding shortfall.  He added that he felt that the EFA had used old figures for their calculations which again might result in a better position.

The Early Years representative asked if the number of early years’ pupils was predicted to rise and The Head of ECS Finance reported that there was likely to be a higher take up. The higher the take up the lower the figure to be recouped by DfE would be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23