Issue - meetings

Report ED15103

The Sub-Committee considered a report reviewing the impact of Local Authority Maintained schools converting to academy status on the Education Portfolio budget. 

Following conversion to academy status, a number of specific roles and responsibilities transferred from the Local Authority to academy schools including improving school attendance, preparing financial accounts and asset management.  To support this, new funding arrangements were introduced by the Government for 2013/14 which top-sliced an amount from all Local Authorities based on pupil numbers at £132 per pupil.  The Government then introduced the Education Services Grant which was provided to Local Authorities and comprised £15 per pupil (for all pupils, regardless of whether they were in Local Authority Maintained or academy schools), to cover statutory duties, and £116 per pupil (now £113), for each pupil in a Local Authority Maintained School.  This methodology disadvantaged the London Borough of Bromley as the top-sliced amount of £132 per pupil was significantly higher than the actual Borough spend of approximately £87 per pupil with a resultant loss of around £3.3m funding to the Local Authority.

The Education Services Grant was not ring-fenced and covered a range of services including School Improvement, statutory and regulatory duties, Education Welfare Service, central support services (mainly music services), asset management and monitoring national curriculum assessment.  As more schools converted to academy status, the level of Education Services Grant continued to reduce and this loss of grant would be further accelerated by a recently announced reduction in the level of Education Services Grant from £113 to £87 per pupil, for each pupil in a Local Authority Maintained School, although the £15 per pupil (for all pupils, regardless of whether they were in Local Authority Maintained or academy schools), to cover statutory duties would be maintained.  Once all schools in the Borough had converted to academy status, the Education Services Grant allocation would remain static at £727k (assuming pupil numbers remained the same). 

In considering the impact of Local Authority Maintained schools converting to academy status on the Education Portfolio budget, the Chairman queried which other Local Authorities had been similarly disadvantaged by the new funding formula, and the Head of Education, Care and Health Services Finance agreed to circulate a briefing to Members of the Sub-Committee following the meeting.

A Member noted the importance of ensuring that sufficient resources continued to be available to schools for key safeguarding functions, such as Human Resources and Finance to ensure that schools received an appropriate level of support. 

RESOLVED that Members’ comments on the impact of all schools converting to academy status on the Education Portfolio budget be noted.