Agenda item

Cabinet Member: Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Learning, Councillor Alisa Flemming

Officer: Interim Executive Director Children, Families & Education, Debbie Jones

Key decision: yes

RESOLVED: To

1.    Approve the funding formula for Croydon schools for the financial year 2021/22 for maintained schools, and the academic year 2021/22 for academies, in line with the recommendations of the School Forum:

a.    To agree for the phased implementation of the National Funding Formula in 2021/22 to ease the potential turbulence of moving to a hard formula at a later stage; and

b.    To agree the funding formula factors set out in Table 2 and paragraphs 3.10 to 3.31 of the report.

The Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Learning, Councillor Alisa Flemming, noted that the report outlined the proposed allocation of the schools block element of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) for both maintained and academy schools in Croydon. The Department for Education (DfE) required Cabinet approval prior to submission on 21 January 2021 and the proposal contained within the report sought a phased implementation of the DfE’s proposed national funding formula.

Jolyon Roberts, Chair of the Schools Forum, was welcomed to the meeting. He informed Members that he had been Chair of the Schools Forum for over ten years and had been a Head Teacher in Croydon for 17 years. He stated that he had followed the discussion on the DSG High Needs Funding at the General Purposes & Audit Committee and had fed back to the Schools Forum on that discussion. Members were informed that the Schools Forum met monthly and there were several sub-committees and working groups which looked at specific areas and fed back to the Forum and all those involved in developing the report were thanked for their hard work.

Jolyon drew Members attention to paragraph 3.10 of the report and stated the Forum had sought to progress towards the national funding formula over time to manage the change more effectively and Croydon was now closely aligned to the recommendations of the funding formula. Members were assured that the DSG was considered carefully by the Schools Forum ahead of recommendations being made and was reviewed quarterly.

The high needs block of the DSG was raised by the Chair of the Schools Forum as being a concern for all as there had been increased levels of responsibility for young people aged 18 to 25 whilst there had been no additional funding to support that work. A plan had been developed in response to the RIPI and regular meetings were reported to have taken place to ensure effective scrutiny was being implemented.

The Leader thanked the Chair of the Schools Forum for his attendance at the Cabinet meeting and for all of his work as both the Chair of the Schools Forum and as a Head Teacher in Croydon.

The Interim Head of Finance for Children, Families & Education, Kate Bingham, advised Members that the wording of the recommendation should be amended to remove the word “provisional” as Cabinet were being asked to agree the final funding formula. In response, the Leader thanked the Interim Head of Finance for the clarification and confirmed that Cabinet understood the amendment.

The Shadow Cabinet Member for Children, Families & Education, Councillor Maria Gatland, thanked the Chair of the Schools Forum for his attendance and attested to the work on the Forum which often considered complex pieces of work. The Shadow Cabinet Member welcomed the expansion of places for pupils with SEND which she hoped would support managing the high needs deficit and questioned whether the proposal was enough. Furthermore, she noted that it was proposed that there would no longer be transfers from the schools block to the high needs block and queried whether there would be further expansion of places to make up the deficit.

In response, the Chair of the Schools Forum informed Members that previously the schools block could be top sliced in order to make up the shortfalls in funding for the high needs block but that the arrangements for the national funding formula stopped this, except for, in his opinion, a small percentage. Given that mainstream schools were under immense pressure the Schools Forum was happy for the money to remain with them rather than be allocated elsewhere. It was recognised by the Chair of the Schools Forum that there remained a large amount of work to be done to manage the high needs block and welcomed the increased funding received over the previous two years. Furthermore, historically a high amount of spending was taking place outside of the borough and there was a desire for the majority of Croydon children to be educated in the borough which would support reducing expenditure. Whilst overspend in the first three quarters of 2020/21 had reduced the budget was still overspending and further work was required to improve the budget.

The Cabinet Member thanked the Chair of the Schools Forum for all of his work in educating the young people of Croydon and supporting the Schools Forum for a number of years. Officers were also thanked for all their work in supporting the Forum and developing the papers. The work and commitment of all teachers was praised as it had been a particularly challenging year.

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

RESOLVED: To

1.     Approve the funding formula for Croydon schools for the financial year 2021/22 for maintained schools, and the academic year 2021/22 for academies, in line with the recommendations of the Schools Forum:

a.     To agree for the phased implementation of the National Funding Formula in 2021/22 to ease the potential turbulence of moving to a hard formula at a later stage; and

b.     To agree the funding formula factors set out in Table 2 and paragraphs 3.10 to 3.31 of the report.