Issue - meetings

Purpose of report

The main purpose of the report is to inform the Cabinet Member of the progress being made towards the implementation of changes to the school revenue funding arrangements for 2017-18 and to seek the necessary approvals at this stage.

RECOMMENDED that the Cabinet Member

(1)  Agree to the de-delegation of the following budgets for central administration in 2017-18 and note the proposed rates for de-delegation (as shown at paragraph 4.2), which will be finally agreed in January:

             i.         Behaviour Support - Primary Only

(2)  Agree the proposed change to the de-delegation of union duties, with de-delegation for the period April 17 to August 17 and the introduction to a traded service arrangement from 1 September 2017; and note the proposed transfer arrangements.

(3)  Note the potential impact on the funding arrangements for Secondary Schools of the opening of the University Technical College (due to open in September 2017).

(4)  Agree the high needs place numbers for maintained and academy special schools, resource units and alternative provision (AP) settings for the academic year 2017-18 as set out in the report.

(TAKE IN REPORT)

The report was introduced by Alison Egerton, Group Accountant. She advised that under the inclusion centres section of the report there was an error in the table for Devonshire school - the agreed commissioned places 2017-18 academic year should read 8 (not 9). She drew attention to paragraph 7.2 in the report regarding to the two minimum funding guarantee (MFG) disapplication requests relating to the variation of primary pupil numbers at Mayfield School and advised that both of these had now been accepted by the DfE.

Councillor Young said he was concerned regarding the request from the Harbour School to increase their element 3 Top up rate by £2,000 per annum per pupil.  Alison Jeffery explained that their academy trust felt that their top up is too low and they require additional funding.  Officers are considering the implications of this request and this will require consultation with schools and approval from the Cabinet Member and endorsement from the Schools Forum. 

In response to questions the following matters were clarified:

·         The government's announcement the previous day regarding the funding formula  will provide funding to carry out a strategic re-design of high needs spend and it will be interesting to see the outcome of this.

The Cabinet Member thanked officers for their hard work on preparing this. 


DECISIONS: the Cabinet Member:

(1)  Agreed to the de-delegation of the following budgets for central administration in 2017-18 and noted the proposed rates for de-delegation (as shown at paragraph 4.2), which will be finally agreed in January:

                                                      i.        Behaviour Support - Primary Only

(2)  Agreed the proposed change to the de-delegation of union duties, with de-delegation for the period April 17 to August 17 and the introduction to a traded service arrangement from 1 September 2017; and noted the proposed transfer arrangements.

(3)  Noted the potential impact on the funding arrangements for Secondary Schools of the opening of the University Technical College (due to open in September 2017).

(4)  Agreed the high needs place numbers for maintained and academy special schools, resource units and alternative provision (AP) settings for the academic year 2017-18 as set out in the report.