Issue - meetings

To receive and consider the 2020/21 Revenue Outturn report.

Katherine Vernon presented the 2020/21 Revenue Outturn report.

Some of the main points made Katherine Vernon are listed below:

·           There had been a net overspend of £3.17 million, representing 2.2% of the 2020/21 Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) allocation.  The original overspend forecast was £2.8 million, so there was a negative variance; 

·           The Schools Block was underspent by £196k, partly because of the Growth Fund, and also £55k underspend from the de-delegated fund;

·           Supply maternity cover was overspent by £100k, the budget for this line was going to be increased for the next year and would be discussed during the review of the de-delegated items;

·           The HNB had had a further adverse movement of £239K since the last report to Schools Forum, mainly relating to mainstream top ups;

·           The final outturn on tutor packages and direct payments was £66K higher than forecasted;

·           The private hospital education was £62k higher than forecasted, the budget process for private hospital education was going to looked at for better forecasting in the future;

·           Schools balances for maintained schools showed an increase of £1.9 million.

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

·           In response to a question Katherine Vernon stated that the review of the de-delegated item, which had been planned for June, was now going to start in September;

·           Corrina Gillard suggested setting a date before the end of term;

·           The Chairman was concerned that by reporting that the Growth Fund budget allocation was spent in year, rather than reporting the actual underspend could create difficulties with the DfE in the future.  He asked that it be clearly reported at the budget planning stage any carry forward lines in the report;

·           The Chairman stated that there was a reported overspend of approximately £6.5 million, of which around £400k was Growth Fund carry forward, and £55k was a contingency reserve; schools were carrying balances of £4 million.  Therefore, the overall carried forward net deficit for education for the local authority at 31 March 2021 was much lower, at about -£0.5 million, than the reports shared at Schools Forum would suggest.

The Chairman thanked Katherine Vernon and her team for the transparency and much improved quality of the report.

RESOLVED That the report be noted.