Agenda item

The Forum received a report from the Director of Finance, which presented the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) final outturn for 2023-24.

It was reported that the final amount of DSG allocated to Halton for 2023-24 was £143,393,022, which was broken down as follows:

The report gave details of the expenditure within each of the blocks and Representatives were referred to Appendix A, which gave a more detailed analysis of the 2023-24 final DSG outturn. 

It was noted that overall, the DSG for 2023-24 had overspent by £2,455,961.  Taking into consideration the carry forward deficit balance of £2,892,585 from the previous financial year, there is a total DSG deficit of £5,348,546 to be carried forward into 2024-25.

Additional information was provided following discussions:

·       Nationally, the SEND deficit was now £1b and Halton had the 12^th highest growth rate of EHCP’s in the Country;

·       The DBV (Delivering Better Values) Programme was introduced by the DfE to alleviate pressure on High Needs and Halton had been awarded £1m after bidding for funding;

·       The DBV Programme had a positive response from schools and it was hoped that the projects within the Programme would support schools to continue to  be more inclusive;

·       The DBV funding was welcomed, however, the DfE was advised that £1m would not be enough to have an impact on the budget deficit and that a long-term plan would be needed;

·       How the DBV money was being spent was closely monitored by the DfE and quarterly meetings were held with them.  It was not thought that the funding would be withdrawn if not spent within a certain amount of time, but this would be checked;

·       Schools had responded positively to the DBV Programme and there was a lot of interest; 19 had started DBV projects last week;

·       An element of the DBV Programme included training schools’ staff to deal with behavioural problems positively with the student.  This was new territory for all and an attempt to do something different, in order to support schools who were struggling with the increasing numbers of SEND pupils.  In relation to Out of Borough placements, it was predicted that these would eventually be reduced if the DBV Programme proved to be successful;

·       Also, increased SEND provision in the Borough would begin to offset Out of Borough places naturally and it was reported that more schools were coming forward to offer more provision;

·       Local authorities all over the country were struggling to fund High Needs and in Halton, it was felt that the DBV Programme alone would not solve the problem;

·       One Representative gave an example of a resource base in one school that was under used and queried why – it was commented that some schools refused children with more complex needs, although information relating to this particular school was not at hand; and

·       The under use of resource bases was a concern, as there was a risk of losing SEND places to other local authorities, who were entitled to take places as their own Out of Borough provision.

RESOLVED:  That Schools Forum note:

1)    the overall deficit balance of DSG from 2023-24 of £5,348,546 is carried forward into the 2024-25 financial year; and

2)    the continuing pressures resulting in an in-year overspend on the High Needs Block of £2,538,695.