Minutes:
The Head of Education and Children’s Services Finance provided the Schools’ Forum with an update concerning the recent Government announcements around additional funding for schools. The Head of Education and Children’s Services Finance explained that as with all funding announcements, the devil would be in the detail. An additional £14bn funding for schools had been announced but this headline figure had been somewhat misleading as it represented an accumulation of funding, spread over three years and included inflationary increases. Operational guidance had been issued alongside the announcement of additional funding.
The additional funding equated to a minimum of £5k per pupil in the Secondary sector, and a minimum of £4k per pupil in the Primary sector. It was important to emphasise however that this was not AWPU. In any event, all schools in Bromley were already receiving above this figure. The additional funding would have varying degrees of impact on schools across the Borough and this would need to be run through formula before any concrete conclusions could be drawn.
There had also been an announcement of an additional £700m for SEN, this equated to roughly £4m funding for the High Needs Block in Bromley. Whilst this funding was welcome, it was important to recognise that the cost of High Needs in Bromley was increasing and the impact of this announcement would need to be monitored as the High Needs Budget would grow as funding grew.
There were still some issues around funding being taken out of the Schools’ Budget to fund new Free Schools and lobbying around this issue continued.
Members of the Schools Forum noted that the Pay Award and Pension Costs would be coming through a grant outside of the funding formula and this would continue for two years. Details of the Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG) were outline in the Operational Guidance and whilst it was hoped that the announced funding amounted to a real time increase in funding the detail would need to be further scrutinised.
The Schools’ Forum noted that further information would need to be provided around funding for Special Schools and Alternative Provision as there had been no guidance from the Government to direct a MFG increase for special schools.
The Head of Schools’ Finance reported that the Government had also issued a further two consultations:
Links to both the consultations would be included in the circular sent to schools.
The Head of Schools’ Finance Support Team reported that a review of the Early Years Block was being undertaken and an update would be provided to the next meeting of the Schools’ Forum.
In conclusion, the Head of Education and Children’s Services Finance confirmed that benchmarking across London had shown that with no structural deficit, Bromley was in a comparatively good position.