Agenda item

To receive and consider the 2024/25 DSG Budget Update report.

The 2024/25 Designated Schools Grant (DSG) Update report was presented by Katherine Vernon.

The DfE advised Wokingham Borough Council at the end of July 2023 what the primary and secondary units of funding for 2024/25 would be.  The service was working on models of funding with this information.

There was a requirement to move closer to the National Funding Formula (NFF), as such there was less scope to move the budget locally to support schools.  For example, in the past the lump sum had been kept artificially hight to support smaller schools, and this was become more difficult.

The report showed a comparison of the allocation for last year's with the next year.  There had been an increase in the allocation for all blocks.

Carole Simpson asked for information about the recent reports in the media that had said that the government had produced wrong numbers to local authorities.

Katherine Vernon explained that from information received to date that it was the Minimum Per Pupil Funding that had gone down, not the other numbers as reported in the media.  The tables contained in report (page 45 of the agenda) had been produced before this announcement.  A new tool had been received to calculate the difference, it was anticipated that there would be a variance of 1% up or down for different schools.

Derren Gray asked if it was the least funded schools, those on the Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG) that would be affected the most by the drop in the Minimum Per Pupil Funding?  Katherine Vernon confirmed that this was the case, however she pointed out that they would be affected by only 1% or less.

Carole Simpson expressed concern that 1% was a large number for a school already running on a deficit budget.  Katherine Vernon explained that everyone would still see an increase of 5% overall on average (rather than 6%).  Carole Simpson stated that although this was an increase, costs had gone up.

Councillor Bray clarified that this was 1% of the increase, not the overall amount.

The Task and Finish Group had been working on models which assumed:

·           Keeping the MFG at maximum allowable of 0.5%

·           Not applying caps on gains, as there is no cap in the NFF

·           The Free School Meals factor could be increased to £300

There results of the consultation were not yet ready for sharing, but there was an overall 80% agreement to the principles applied with the formula.

The disapplication request for the all-through school had to be submitted every year, and this would be actioned again this year.

As per Schools Forum request, Officers were looking at ways to help schools with falling roll numbers.  This would be discussed with the Task and Finish Group and the findings would be presented to the December meeting.

Katherine Vernon asked schools to return the results of the October census as soon as possible to enable Officers to calculate the income for next year.

From September 2024 the Early Year’s free entitlement was going to extend to 9 months up to 2 year-olds.  It was not certain what the new rate was going to be.  The Early Years Task and Finish Group would work on modelling this later in the spring term.

A HNB Task and Finish Group would be set up for November to work on next year’s budget.

RESOLVED That the 2024/25 Budget Update report be noted.