Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence received from Peter Largue.

The Forum is asked to approve as a correct record the minutes of he last meeting held on 6 July 2023.

The minutes of the meeting held on the 6th July 2023 were agreed as a correct

record.

Terence Appleby, Resources and Digital

The Forum received a report on Quarter 1’s Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) projected outturn position for 2023/24.

The Council’s budget for 2023/24 is £110.580m, with a projected outturn for the year of £109.989m with an underspend of £0.591m. The main underspend is due to the Early Years block.

The reserves balance is £3.965m as of 31^st March 2023, factoring in the current year underspend and Early Years clawback, the balance at the end of 31^st March 2024 is projected to be £4.374m.

RESOLVED – That the Schools Forum noted the content of the report.

Carole Smith, Resources and Digital

A report was brought to the Schools Forum with further details on the Early Years Supplementary Grant.

The 2023 Spring budget announced there will be additional funding for the existing early years entitlements for disadvantaged 2-year-olds, 3- and 4-year-old children.

The Local Authority will receive an increased rate of £7.26  per hour to from £5.63 per hour for 2- year-olds. The rate will increase from £5.00 per hour to £5.20 per hour for 3-and4- year-olds. The rates will be based on the January 2023 early years census data.

The funding has not yet been received yet.

The Local Authority has consulted with all providers on the proposals for the distribution of the additional funding, and although due to time constraints school forum did not have to be consulted, the responses to the consultation will be brought to the School Forum.

It was discussed that a sub-group will be needed to work on the new Early Years Formula from April 2023 and volunteers were requested.

RESOLVED - i) That Schools Forum noted the report.

ii) It was agreed the sub-group to be set up to work on the Early           Years formula, with 3 volunteers from Schools Forum putting their names forward.

Carole Smith, Resources and Digital

A report was presented to the School Forum on the update of Funding by the Department of Education (DfE) in July 2023.

For the Schools Block, the DfE have stated they have increased the funding by 2.4% this excludes the mainstreaming of the mainstream schools additional grant (MSGA) into 2024/25 schools block funding. It has also been stated;

·         The PFI factor will increase in line with RPIX measure of inflation approx. 10.4%.

·         The funding floor is set at0.5%

·         MFG for mainstream schools will be between 0.0% and +0.5%

The DfE provisional allocation forGateshead is:

·         Primary unit of funding increased from £4,950 to £5,279.

·         Secondary unit of funding increased from £6,249 to £6,680.

·         Premises factors increased from £4,561,314 to £5,239,254.

·         Provisional allocation increased from £135,116,226 to £144,568,580 excluding growth and falling rolls funding but including the mainstreamed MSGA funding. This funding will not include the new grant for teachers pay.

·         All formula factors will have to be used by local authorities and Gateshead’s current formula “mirrors” the NFF and as such will not need to be substantially changed.

High needs block has been increased by 5% from £33,336,546 to £36,203,373. Central Schools Service block has decreased by 20%. The per pupil year on year reduction is 2.5%, with a year-on-year gain of 5.5%.

The Early Yards block funding has yet to be announced for 2024/25, however, the DfE have stated there will be an increase in funding, but this has not been officially announced for 3 & 4year-olds and only indicative funding for 2-year-olds allocations, which are subject to change.

RESOLVED – The School Forum notes the report.

Tuesday 14 November 2023 at 2:00pm (via Microsoft Teams).

Tuesday 9^th November 2023 at 2:00pm via Microsoft Teams.