Agenda item

Carole Smith, Corporate Resources

The Forum received a report on the DSG funding settlement. It was reported that the funding settlement was received on 19 December 2017, overall it was good news with Gateshead receiving an estimated £145.209m DSG for 2018/19, this is an increase of £6.7m from last year.

It was noted that the DfE will allocate in four main funding blocks;

·         The Early Years Block – for 2, 3 and 4 year old funding, including Early Years Pupil Premium

·         Schools Block – for mainstream schools

·         Central Schools Services Block – for retained duties and historic spend

·         High Needs Block – includes Special Schools, PRU and high needs top-up and place funding

In terms of the Early Years Block it was noted that the hourly rate remains the same as 2017/18  at £4.53, which is an equivalent of £4,303.50 per FTE. There  is an increase of £1m from £11.8m last year to £12.8m for 2018/19 due to increased estimated hours. This is estimated allocations and will be updated in the summer following  the January census data.

The Central Schools Services Block is new and takes elements that used to be top sliced from the schools block. There is a slight increase from the equivalent funding last year but it does not address the funding gap due to the elimination of the Education Services Grant.

In relation to the Schools Block the Primary Unit of Funding is £4,036.39 per pupil and the Secondary Unit of Funding is £5,023.26 per pupil and the historical element totals £4,449,590, this includes growth, premises and mobility factors. The total allocation in the Schools Block has increased by £3.581m from last year, this is partly due to pupil number growth of 198 pupils, 154 additional primary and 44 additional secondary pupils, which totals £0.843m, the rest of the increase is due to the National Funding Formula.

The High Needs Block has increased slightly to £21.79m, this is due to the positive MFG set by government.

It was reported that the rates per pupil for the pupil premium will remain the same for 2018/19 but will increase for looked after children and children adopted from care from £1,900 last year to £2,300 per pupil for 2018/19.

Universal Infant FSM continues at the same rate of £2.30 for 2018/19. Also, the Primary PE and Sport Premium will continue,  with a national allocation of £320m for 2018/19. Further details will be made available later in the year as to the widening of the remit of this grant and the individual allocations.

It was questioned what the total percentage of overall pupils is SEN. It was noted that this was looked at previously during an inspection and it showed Gateshead slightly below its statistical neighbours, this was due to a disparity in recording census data. It was agreed that this would be looked into to establish the proportion of pupils who have SEN.

RESOLVED    -           That the Schools Forum noted;

(i)            The estimated Early Years Block

(ii)           The Central Schools Services Block

(iii)          The Schools Block

(iv)         The High Needs Block allocation

(v)          The other funding information.