Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Andrew Ferguson and Steve Whittle.

Apologies for lateness were received from Chris Hollands.

The minutes of the meeting held on 18^th January 2024 were approved.

There were no matters arising for discussion from the previous meeting.

CEF23098

The Director of Education presented the Draft DSG Deficit Recovery Management Plan for 2025/26. The Forum was asked to comment and scrutinise the Plan.

The first section of the report outlined what was already being done to maintain the current medium term financial strategy. If the current mitigation workstreams were maintained, this would mean that there would be an in year deficit in 2025/26 of £5.4m.

The second part of the report proposed three new possible mitigation measures for consideration. The first one of these was to establish a new Secondary Special School. This would be delivered locally by the LBB Capital Projects Team. Previously, the team did not have sufficient capacity to undertake the project, but now the team’s capacity had been bolstered considerably. The new proposed school would be established using the Free School Presumption Route. This route was still available under previous government policy and so it was hoped that this route would be maintained by the new government. It was anticipated that the new school could be up and running in 2027/28 and that it could be initiated in temporary accommodation by September 2026. If this could be established, then it would provide increasing levels of financial mitigation, albeit offset by the capital borrowing cost. 

The Director stated that there were no easy options. If radical measures were not taken, then the Council would end up with a DSG deficit of £45m in 2029 which was not sustainable. He explained that there currently existed something termed ‘financial disregard’. This meant that local authorities were not required to put money aside for DSG funding within reserves. The Director stated that the reality was that this did not work, and that unless the government decided to write off the deficit, then at some point the money would need to be paid. There would be a reckoning. It was the case that the government had inherited various financial problems, and added to pressures on the NHS, it was (in his view) very unlikely that the government would write off the current national DSG deficit of three billion pounds. It was important that all concerned understood that the Council was required to set a balanced budget. It was not unfeasible that Bromley Council could end up in a ‘Section 114’ scenario like some other councils. At the same time, the Director acknowledged the financial pressures that were affecting schools.

The second proposal for consideration was to review/reduce AP (Alternative Provision) top up rates against market forces, with a view to ensuring that Bromley’s commissioning reflected the best possible value for money. It was acknowledged by all that AP was under considerable pressure and at the same time had never been needed more.

The third proposal was to consider a ‘disapplication request’ to ‘top slice’ the ‘Schools Block’ by 0.5%, or roughly £1.35m. If this was implemented, it would have the effect of (for the average secondary school) of reducing the delegated schools budget by approximately £20k, and for a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48.

CEF23096

Members of the Schools Forum were presented with sight of a report that was intended for scrutiny at the Children, Education and Families Policy Development and Scrutiny Committee on 17th September 2024. The report was regarding spending by primary, secondary and special maintained schools in 2023-24.

It was a statutory requirement that this annual report be produced to report on the revenue balances of the six remaining maintained schools. The revenue balances for special schools and secondary schools had reduced, while there was a slight increase in the revenue balance of primary schools.

No particular matters were identified for consideration or referral to the Portfolio Holder.

RESOLVED that the report (and the balances detailed therein) be noted.

The Chairman and the Director of Education noted that this was the last meeting that Patrick Foley would be attending. Both the Chairman and the Director expressed their thanks to Mr Foley for his hard work and dedication to the work of the Schools Forum over many years.

THURSDAY 17^TH OCTOBER 2024

The next meeting of the Schools Forum would take place at 4.30pm on 17^th October 2024.