Agenda item

To receive and consider the 2021/22 Revenue Monitoring report.

Kathrine Vernon presented the 2021/22 Revenue Monitoring report.

There had been an increase in deficit of approximately £1 million from the figures reported at the last meeting in January.  This deficit increase related to:

·           £169k mainstream – both in and out of borough

·           £115k special schools – out of borough

·           £515k independent and non-maintained special schools

·           £143k education other than at school

Katherine Vernon made the following points:

·           The figures that were presented to Schools Forum in January were based on November 2021 activity, so this increase represented activity since November 2021;

·           Officers were analysing the figures.  Some of the movement was outside of the Council’s control, such as children with Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) moving into the borough (of whom the Council had no prior knowledge);

·           Some children had to be placed outside of the borough because there were no placements for them within the borough, and the cost of those placements was not known at the time of forecasting;

·           There was an ongoing issue with trying to recover money from Health;

·           The cost for the summer term had mistakenly been omitted from the figures in relation to the independent and non-maintained special schools;

·           Additional invoices that had not been accrued last year had come in this year;

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

·           The Chairman expressed serious concern that there was such a significant difference in the forecast since the last meeting in January, in particular in relation to the mistakes made in relation to summer term costings and accruals;

·           Katherine Vernon explained that there were some historical issues that were coming to light now, and the service was learning with the process;

·           Ginny Rhodes expressed concern that more historical commitments may come to light which would further increase the deficit;

·           Daniel Robinson stated that:

o   There were three placements for which the Local Authority believed that Health should contribute towards their costs, this amounted to approximately £117k.  This work was ongoing;

o   In relation to SEN and historical commitments, the team was looking at a further 50-60 plans to complete the review, and the final figure would be worked out by the end of June;

o   The audit trail in relation to historical financial decisions was not available, therefore there were disputes in relation to invoices, in particular with non maintained independent schools.  This was the reason for the unknown invoices;

·         The children that would have gone to the new Oaktree School through the phased transfers, would have cost around £446k for 25 children.  Because of the delay in opening the school, these children would cost upwards of £800k.  Placements could cost between £20k and £90k each and this created difficulties in terms of budgeting;

Katherine Vernon continued her presentation:

·           There was £55k in contingencies which had not been used and would be carried forward to the next year;

·           £126k of the £206,5k of Early Years Provider Reserve Fund had been used to fund new settings in 2020/21.  An underspend of around £84k had been expected and this was confirmed to be £90k by the DfE in November 2021;

·           A reserve fund of £146,5k was set aside as part of 2021/22 budget setting, and an underspend of around £300k was anticipated this year.  The service would know whether there was anything left to distribute to settings once the DfE confirmed the recoupment;

·           In relation to the Growth Fund, there had not been any new classes.  Therefore there would be a carry forward of £406k into the new financial year to supplement the 2022/23 budgeted Growth Fund allocation of £1,589k.

In response to a question, Katherine Vernon explained that Early Years was funded on the number of hours used.  Any unallocated funds after the clawback by the DfE would be redistributed to the providers.

RESOLVED That the report be noted.