Issue - meetings

Report cef22076

The report presented the draft Dedicated Schools Grant Recovery Management Plan which provided analysis of key data, set out actions taken and outlined proposed new actions to address the growing financial pressures within the High Needs Funding Block of the Dedicated Schools Grant. 

In presenting the report, the Director of Education underlined that the deficit in Dedicated Schools Grant was primarily caused by the growth of demand within the High Needs block, with the Local Authority continuing to see a rate of increase in Education, Care and Health Plans which was higher than both the national and outer-London average.  The draft Dedicated Schools Grant Recovery Management Plan had been developed in consultation with the Department for Education to articulate the Local Authority’s proactive response to the deficit; however, it would not bring the Dedicated Schools Grant back into balance due to the forecast demands on the Dedicated Schools Grant continuing to exceed anticipated funding over the next five years. 

In response to a question from a Member, the Director of Education confirmed that whilst the Local Authority was now in deficit, it had been one of the final London Boroughs to do this and remained in a stronger financial position than many other local authorities that were subject to safety valve support and monitoring.  Additionally, a Financial Disregard was in place which meant that the deficit did not have to be counted within the Local Authority’s reserves, although the Local Authority had taken a prudent approach and had sufficient reserves at the moment to account for it if legislation changed.  Going forward, a key area of focus would be reducing unnecessary requests for statutory assessment by ensuring that schools and other partners were well-placed to provide high quality early intervention services, including speech therapy.  It was not planned to put any cap on the number of Education, Care and Health Plans agreed but simply to ensure that children received the appropriate level of support to meet their individual needs.  A Member commented on the complexities of identifying whether children with special educational needs and disabilities should be placed in mainstream or specialist provision and the Director of Children, Education and Families advised that the priority was to place children in the education environment in which they could thrive.  Work to review the SEN estate was underway and this would include identifying mainstream schools with the potential to host additional specialist units to meet future need.  The Local Authority was also working with the Department for Education to establish a Special Free School within the Borough with a feasibility study currently being undertaken.

In response to a question from a Member, the Head of Children, Education and Families Finance advised that the savings proposed in the area of Demand Management were already built into the medium-term financial strategy. The Dedicated Schools Grant Recovery Management Plan was a live document and work would be ongoing both by the Local Authority and in discussions with the Department for Education to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41