Issue - meetings

Report ED18085

The Schools’ Forum considered a report which provided an outline of the Local Authority’s draft response to the DfE consultation on funding for special educational needs and disabilities and those who need alternative provision.  The Local Authority’s draft response had been developed collaboratively across services with the Council’s Education Directorate.  The deadline for submitting responses to the consultation was 31^st July 2019.

The Director of Education encouraged every school and provider in the Borough to contribute and respond to the consultation which addressed a key issue.

Members of the Schools’ Forum raised the following key points concerning the Local Authority’s draft response:

Funding for SEN through schools funding formula

It was suggested that the answer to question 4 needed to be strengthened as the cohort of children with increasingly complex needs (specifically ASD) placed in mainstream settings was a group that historically ‘fell through the net’ as their needs did not neatly fit into criteria.  This placed a growing burden on schools supporting this group of children.  Acknowledging the pressures facing schools, the Director of Education highlighted that autistic spectrum conditions were a key priority for the Council’s SEND Governance Board.

The £6,000 threshold

The Head of Schools Finance Support explained that having read the consultation a number of times her understanding of the explanation provided in relation to this issue was that any proposal to increase or decrease the threshold would be cost neutral across the DSG.  There would be no additional funding, instead funding would be shifted between blocks.

Members of the Schools’ Forum stressed that this clearly demonstrated why schools were in the position they were in in terms of funding.  The DfE did not appear to acknowledge or accept that more money was needed.

A Member noted that the £6,000 threshold had been in place for a considerable length of time.  One key result of this was that overtime its value in real terms had diminished – schools now received less for £6,000 than they did 20 years ago.  The Member questioned whether there was any value in schools publishing how their notional funding was spent.  It was also not clear how the historical figure of £6,000 had been decided upon.

The Schools’ Forum discussed how the notional funding was allocated.  It was noted that a working group had been reviewing this issue and had planned to create some guidance/best practice that could be circulated to schools who had to demonstrate that their notional funding had been fully utilised before drawing down further funding from the Local Authority.

The Vice-Chairman suggested that one of the problems with the format of the consultation was that opportunities for detailed response were limited as not every question included a comment box.  Funding for SEN was a key issue facing every school and it was essential that this message was clearly communicated to the DfE.

It was agreed that the response should reflect that the £6,000 threshold had not been increased as well as providing examples of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3