Agenda item

Report ED15076

The Sub-Committee considered a report outlining the final outturn position of the Education Portfolio for the 2013/14 financial year.  This showed an underspend of £539,000 for the controllable element of the Education budget.  A number of carry forward requests totalling £297,000 had been agreed by the Council’s Executive at its meeting on 10^th June 2014.  These carry forward requests related to either unspent grant income or delays in expenditure where cost pressures would continue into 2014/15.

The final outturn position showed a underspend of £4.265m for the Dedicated Schools Grant.  This would be carried forward to the 2014/15 financial year in addition to the underspend from previous years and would be used to fund specific Education-type purposes, including funding to address health and safety measures identified at some schools, and towards the capital costs of establishing a new specialist secondary provision for pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties in the Borough as part of the relocation of Burwood School from its current Orpington site to a more central location. 

Members were advised that the relocation of Burwood School to a more central location offered the opportunity for the school to consider its admissions criteria.  There was currently no Key Stage 4 specialist provision for female pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties in the Borough.  The recent closure of the national charity, Springboard, which had successfully operated as a training provider in Bromley for several years, would also reduce the level of alternative provision available for young people in the Borough.  It was planned that the new specialist provision would offer up to 75 places for young people, which would both meet the existing demand for places and create surplus places available to be purchased by in and out-of-Borough schools.  A wide range of provision including vocational training would be offered up to Level 1 (D-G Grade GCSE), which would complement the Bromley Alternate Provision Academy, which was seeking to offer a range of provision, including vocational training, up to Level 2 (A-C Grade GCSE) from September 2014.  It was hoped the new specialist provision would also offer a post-16 alternative provision offer for young people with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties in the Borough.

The Portfolio Holder for Education was pleased to advise Members of the Sub-Committee that there had been an underspend of £310k in Special Educational Needs Transport as a result of increased route efficiency and route sharing with neighbouring Local Authorities, as well as planned costs relating to IT system work required for merging with Adults Transport not being incurred in year.  It was anticipated that further savings could also be realised through the establishment of a new specialist provision for pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties in the Borough as part of the relocation of Burwood School from its current Orpington site to a more central location.

The Chairman noted there had been a shortfall of income in the Education Psychology trading account, as well as higher than budgeted resources required.  This had resulted in an overspend of £38k for 2014/15.  The Assistant Director: Education confirmed the Education Psychology Service had undertaken a significant amount of work on the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Pathfinder Programme which was working to test and implement the requirements set out in the proposed Children and Families Bill and indicative Code of Practice.  The Education Psychology Service was also affected by the number of SEN Tribunal appeals convened.  A more proactive approach was now being taken by the Local Authority to work with parents and carers to identify the support needs of their child outside of the SEN Tribunal process, and the increased use of Pupil Resource Agreements, which were a means of supporting schools and parents to work together flexibly to meet the needs of pupils in mainstream schools, were expected to further reduce the incidence of appeals.  The Portfolio Holder for Education underlined the excellent work of the Education Psychology Service and noted that it was a much valued service.

RESOLVED that:

1)  The underspend of £539,000 on controllable expenditure at the end of 2013/14  be noted;

2)  A number of carry forward requests agreed at the meeting of the Council’s Executive on 10^th June 2014 be noted; and,

3)  The Education Portfolio Outturn Report 2013/14 be recommended to the Portfolio for Education for approval.