Agenda item

The Forum was presented with the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) provisional funding for 2024-25.

Officers advised that since publication of the agenda, the Department for Education (DfE) has provided website links to updated tables with the overall figures, resulting in Halton’s settlement being reduced by just under £1m.

The provisional DSG settlement for 2024-25 was £140,756,493 for the Schools Block, Central Schools Services Block (CSSB) and High Needs Block.  However, this had now been reduced to an amount of £139,780,11.

To update, as stated in the report included on the agenda, the Schools Block provisional allocation was £112,914,268, based on the October 2022 census data which was an increase of £2.722m or 2.5% when compared to the actual Schools Block allocation for 2023-24 – however this is now £111,937,785, which is an increase of 1.61%, rather than the 2.5% stated initially.  Further, inclusive of the Mainstream Schools Additional Grant (MSAG), the Primary Unit of Funding (PUF) and Secondary Unit of Funding (SUF) had been reduced to £5,497 for Primary and £6,950 for Secondary.  The PUF and SUF were to be confirmed in December following receipt of the October 2023 census information.

  It was noted that individual budgets being funded from the CSSB for 2024-25 would be presented at the January meeting of the Forum and the High Needs Block budgets would be presented at the February meeting.

The DfE had indicated that the Early Years Block provisional settlement for 2024-25 would be announced in December 2023.

It was proposed to continue to follow the National Funding Formula (NFF), using the NFF cash values where possible.  The NFF formula values being proposed for Halton’s school funding formula were detailed at Appendix A, together with the NFF methods, principles and rules.  The Forum was requested to recommend the use of all NFF values for the determination of schools and academies formula funding for 2024-25, noting that any affordability issues would be brought back to the January 2024 meeting of the Forum for final recommendation.  The Forum agreed to continue with the NFF values being proposed, with the NFF methods, principles and rules outlined in the Appendix.

It was reported that the level of Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG) could not be set until after the October 2023 census data and final grant allocation for 2024-25 was received, however it was envisaged that the maximum 0.5% MFG will be applied, as in previous years.  The Forum was requested to recommend in principle therefore, that 0.5% be applied, noting that any affordability issues would be brought back to the January 2024 meeting of the Forum, for final recommendation.  This was agreed.

RESOLVED:  That the Schools Forum:

1)    note the report and update regarding the DfE’s notification of a discrepancy with the overall DSG settlement;

2)    support the continuation of the National Funding Formula (NFF) methods, principles and rules for mainstream primary and secondary school funding allocations for 2024-25;

3)    agree the NFF unit values as presented in Appendix A be applied to mainstream schools and academies funding formula for 2024-25; and

4)    agree to a 0.5% MFG level in principle.