Issue - meetings

Report ED17012

The Schools’ Forum considered a report outlining the DfE consultation on proposed changes to Free School funding along with the suggested response from the Local Authority (LA) indicating that the LA did not support the proposals.  On 21^st July, the DfE launched a consultation seeking views on proposals to change the local authority recoupment arrangements for mainstream Free Schools.  The closing date for the consultation was 21^st September 2016.  The DfE proposals, if implemented, would have a financial implication for the LA with early financial modelling indicating that the cost to the Council for the financial year 2017/18 would be around £1.3 million.

In relation to Question 1, the Forum considered the implication within the consultation that savings could be utilised as a result of minimising ‘double funding’.  The Forum categorically stated that they believed that the DfE had made a mistake and that there was no ‘double funding’ of pupils.  This indicated that there would be very few savings if the proposals were approved.  Indeed, the Director of Education noted that there would be a large funding gap if the Government implemented the proposals.  One Member questioned whether the implementation of the proposals would amount to a breach of the previous Conservative Government’s pledge to maintain levels of school funding.  The Head of Schools’ Finance Support suggested that the DfE would argue that funding to schools was not being cut.  It was agreed that the response of the LA should be strengthened to stress that the Schools’ Forum and the LA did not consider there to be any double funding.

The Schools’ Forum was dismayed to discover that financial planning tools had been sent out with the presumption that the proposals would be approved.  This suggested that the DfE were merely paying lip service to the consultation process and that the proposals would be implemented regardless of the consultation responses received by the DfE.

It was suggested that the LA’s final bullet point in response to the first question should be a statement not a question and should therefore be amended to read:

“It is unrealistic and unreasonable to introduce this change in advance of the NFF system as it will create additional work for LAs – it would be better to introduce this in line with the “hard formula” when LAs will no longer have a role in the formula process and the DfE will have the pupil number data to directly inform this process.”

In relation to Question 2, it was suggested that the Head of Strategic Place Planning should review the wording of the LAs response.  It was agreed that any revisions that were made needed no further consideration by the Forum.

RESOLVED: That the draft Local Authority response to the DfE Consultation relating to Adjustments in Local Authority Funding relating to Free Schools be supported.