Issue - meetings

To receive and consider the 2020/21 High Needs Block Budget and Improvement Programme Update report.

Lynne Samuel presented the 2020/21 High Needs Block (HNB) Budget and Improvement Programme update.

Lynne Samuel stated that the Council had received and additional £1.6m (8.6%) for the coming financial year, in recognition of the increasing pressures faced in the HNB by the Local Authority.  This additional funding was welcome, however the HNB still faced challenges, with a projected in-year deficit of £1.7m.  It was also recognised that budgets had been static for a number of years, with no increases in top up funding.

Lynne Samuel stated that the Local Authority was required by law to submit a balanced budget to the DfE (regardless of what the reality was).  The appendixes showed the breakdown of the figures, with some small adjustments still to be made.  She stated that home to school transport budget had been moved to the Council’s general fund.

Sal Thirlway stated that extensive work was being undertaken to reduce the HNB deficit.  These are some of the comments he made:

·           The Resource Bases work continued, this was a challenging but positive piece of work, with the strategic commissioning team involved;

·           Northern House special school – the Council continued to work with the Northern House Trust and the Regional Schools Commissioner to find a new provider for the school.  This represented a challenge for the Local Authority as many Wokingham children were placed there;

·           The SEND Improvement Board had met the day before and they had had a robust meeting;

·           The SEND Strategy was moving forward with the six strands of work which were identified as priorities (but not limited to those six strands of work);

·           The provision of home to school transport was being considered in the context of broader arrangements in the Council, he believed that this service should sit with Children’s Services;

·           There had been a deficit recovery meeting with the ESFA and SEND Improvement colleagues, the Council had provided them with a clear overview.  However, it was unlikely that the deficit would reduce as the Local Authority had not been given the level of resources that were needed.

During the discussion of the item the following comments were made:

·           Lynne Samuel stated that going forward she expected that there would be more communication with the EFSA and more clarity on how to deal with the deficit;

·           Lynne Samuel stated that there were challenges in achieving a balanced in-year position and in dealing with the historical deficit;

·           Sara Attra stated that Addington School had received interim top ups from other neighbouring Local Authorities who used the school.  She warned that this represented a large amount (for 44 pupils) and if it was reduced would have an impact;

·           The Chair stated that the Out of Borough independent non-maintained schools represented the largest amount of money (30% of the annual HNB Budget), the report did not contain the narrative around this.  Lynne Samuel agreed to include the relevant paragraph with the minutes;

·           Sal Thirlway stated that this issue was being looked at, more places were being created  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44