Issue - meetings

The Forum considered a report which provided feedback from the Working Group (WG) set up to undertake a review of the LA funding formula.  The WG considered a detailed analysis of the Bromley Funding Formula elements compared to a number of neighbouring local authorities (appendix 2 of the report).  The WG group felt that they were able to draw a number of conclusions from the data as follows:

·  Bromley primary : secondary ratio was low compared to other LAs

·  Bromley % basic entitlement was in line with other LAs

·  Bromley % pupil led was in line with other LAs

·  Bromley AWPU allocations were generally in line with other LAs – if not necessarily in actual values, in terms of the primary : secondary splits.

·  The Bromley lump sum was generally in line with other LAs in terms of both its allocation and its spread.

It was concluded from this that the review should therefore focus on the other elements within the formula, namely Deprivation, EAL and Low Cost/High Incidence SEN, but with particular focus on the last two elements where there was a differential between the primary and secondary amounts.

Some initial modelling was carried out looking at EAL and Low Cost/High Incidence SEN as follows (appendix 3 of the report):

·  Primary EAL increased to £1129 in line with secondary

·  Primary LC/HI Sen reduced to £1,000 in line with secondary

The impact of this was such that it shifted the primary: secondary ratio from 1:1.19 to 1:1.24 which was slightly more in line with other LAs.  However, because of the impact of the MFG mechanism, no primary schools could lose more than 1.5% of their budget share per pupil and secondary schools did not benefit from this change. 

The Head of Schools’ Finance Support reported that the implications of the Government’s Autumn Budget Statement, delivered on Wednesday 25 November 2015, was that there would be a move towards a national funding formula from April 2017.  If this were to happen it was possible that Bromley could receive additional funding which would enable the discrepancy around the ratio to be addressed.

The Forum noted that a number of secondary schools in Bromley were experiencing a funding crisis as a result of funding pressures implemented nationally.  It was felt that there needed to be a much fairer system for all schools but that in order for any decisions to be taken there needed to be a clearer indication of the national funding formula.

RESOLVED: That,

1. the Working Group note the comments of the Schools’ Forum outlined above; and

2. initial consultation with all schools around the scope of the review of the funding formula for 2017/18 be approved.