Issue - meetings

Report ED17011

The Schools’ forum considered a report outlining the DfE proposals for an Early Years National funding Formula and changes to the way three and four year old entitlements to childcare are funded along with the Local Authority’s (LA) draft response.  On 11^th August 2016, the DfE launched a consultation document on proposals for an early years’ national funding formula and changes to the way three and four year old entitlements to childcare are funded.  The closing date for the consultation was Thursday 22^nd September 2016.  Alongside the consultation document the DfE published illustrative funding allocations which demonstrated that the funding rates for Bromley would increase from £4.19 (compared to a national average of £4.43) to £4.91 (compared to the national average of £4.71). It was anticipated that this increase would be passed onto providers and would mean that potentially there may not be the need to find savings in this block as part of the overall DSG budget exercise, and that settings could see a real increase in funding.

The Early Years Representative reported that the consultation would be considered at the Providers meeting on 14^th September 2016 and a response would be submitted on behalf of the providers.  On the face of it, it appeared that overall Bromley would receive increased funding which was good news however, there did appear to be some anomalies in the consultation document which was slightly concerning.  The Head of Schools Finance Support provided reassurance to the Forum that, having undertaken some addition work, it did appear that Bromley would be getting the full increase in funding in the first year.

The Head of Schools’ Finance Support reported that there did appear some logic behind a number of the proposals.  Members of the Forum noted that the proposed formula appeared to be transparent and stressed that it was important that the National Funding Formula for schools maintained the same level of transparency.

In response to Forum Members concerns surrounding the absence of a response from LA Officers at the Phoenix Centre, the Head of Schools’ Finance Support reported that some draft responses had been received and these were supportive of the proposals.

Members of the Schools’ Forum were happy to support the draft responses that that been provided but suggested however that more direct answers to the questions should be provided with qualification following the direct answer.

RESOLVED: That the draft response provided by the Local Authority be supported.