Issue - meetings

Cabinet considered a report, introduced by the Cabinet Member for Children, which sought approval of the proposed Schools Funding Formula for 2013/14.

RESOLVED:

That the proposed funding formula, set out in Appendix 1 of the report and unanimously recommended by the Haringey Schools Forum, be agreed, and that the Director of Children’s Services be given delegated authority to approve amendments to the formula if the Director considered that such amendments were necessary to address in order any equalities issues arising from the application of the revised DfE datasets (as set out in paragraph 1.5 of the report) and associated EqIA analysis.

Alternative Options Considered

Several models were considered by the Schools Forum Working Party and prior to that the Schools Forum on 11 October 2012.

The working group initially considered sixteen models that offered permutations against the allowable formula factors e.g. variations against lump sums of £100k and £150k or no lump sum. This also included looking at deprivation factors (FSME and IDACI) both individually and in combination. Based on the guidance given by the working party and the Schools Forum meeting in July, further work was undertaken to map the existing formula factors against the new, more limited, allowable factors.

Following this modelling to limit turbulence within the constraints of ensuring schools serving the most deprived areas were protected and the convergence of the primary: secondary ratio was carried out prior to reporting the recommendation model to Forum in October 2012.

Reasons for Decision

It is the statutory responsibility of the Council to approve the funding formula for schools.