Agenda item

Haringey Council's Local Schools Funding Formula for the 2021-22 Financial Year

Meeting of Schools Funding Formula, Cabinet Member Signing, Friday, 15th January, 2021 11.00 am (Item 22.)

This report seeks the Cabinet Members’ approval for changes to the Council’s local schools funding formula for the 2021-22 financial year in line with the Schools National Funding Formula set out by the Department for Education (DfE).

The Chair of Overview and Scrutiny has agreed that the call-in procedure shall not apply to this decision as the action being taken is urgent and time critical and any delay in implementation caused by the call-in procedure would seriously prejudice the Council's or the public's interests. This is in accordance with Part 4, Section H, Paragraph 18 (a) and (b) of the Council Constitution.

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Children, Education, and Families considered the report which sought approval for changes to the Council’s local schools funding formula for the 2021-22 financial year in line with the Schools National Funding Formula set out by the Department for Education (DfE).

Haringey’s Schools’ Forum met on 14 January 2021 to consider the funding formula for 2021-22. Following approval by the Cabinet Member, the funding allocation for 2021-22 was required to be submitted to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) via the Authority Proforma Tool by 21 January 2021.

Kristian Bugnosen, Principal Accountant, explained that the Schools’ Forum had considered the proposals at its meeting on 14 January 2021 and had agreed with the proposals. As such, there were no changes to report. It was explained that the changes required approval by the Council in line with its local scheme of delegation to complete the Authority Proforma Tool, as required by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). It was noted that this approval could be given on behalf of the Council by the Cabinet Member.

The Cabinet Member for Children, Education, and Families noted that there had been consultation with schools and, importantly, that the Schools’ Forum was content with the proposals.

RESOLVED

To agree the changes to the Schools funding formula for 2021/22.

The agreement of changes is based on consultation with Schools’ Forum. See Appendix A of the Cabinet Member Signing agenda for Individual Schools allocations for 2021-22 in comparison with 2020-21.

Schools were consulted on local factors of the 2021-22 school funding formula in December 2020, the results of the consultation are detailed in Table A, below. This details the most supported local factors:

Table A – Consultation Results:

Consultation Question	Results (Highest total votes)	Affect to 2021-22 APT (Schools)
Growth: To set Growth Funding Budget at £1.100m (Indicative Budget is £1.199m) * as stated in December School Forum. £99k will be put back through the formula to protect Tiverton School uptake due to the closure of Stamford Hill	Growth Budget to be set at £1.100M.	Through the APT tool the Growth Budget is set at £1.100M with any difference being routed through the main APT. All primary and secondary schools have access to the growth fund. Any remaining balances at Year End – will be presented to School Forum to decide distribution.
High Needs Block Transfer: To set a %age of High Needs Block transfer from DSG Allocation.	There will be a 0% transfer of Schools Block Funding into the High Needs Block.	The Schools Block will not be contributing to the High Needs Block for 2021-22.
Education Welfare: Block transfer of £122,000 for Education Welfare Service budget to Central Block to ensure all schools and academies have contributed a fair amount to fund the services for the financial year 2021-22	£122k will be top sliced from the Schools Block to support the Education Welfare Service.	The arrangement for top slicing a contribution from Schools Block to support the Education Welfare Service will continue for 2021-22.
Nursery Split Sites: Nursery Split Site funding of £60k for one Nursery School to be continued for 2021-22	£60k has been agreed to support the split site Nursery.	This will be top sliced from Schools Block to support the Nursery in question to ensure parity across the Borough.
De-Delegated Factors: De-delegated factors within the APT remain the same as 2020-21 APT: including A: Schools in Financial Difficulty £179,000: LA Maintained Primary and Secondary Schools contributing £7.70 per AWPU and B:Trade Union Representation £135,739: LA Maintained Primary and Secondary Schools contributing £5.80 per AWPU.	No to A (Schools in Financial Difficulty), Yes to B (Trade Union Representation).	There is no Schools in Financial Difficulty Fund for 2021-22. The de-delegation pot has reduced when compared to 2020-21. There is a larger share to be distributed directly to Schools through the main formula funding route. The Trade Union funding has been agreed for 2021-22. The rates will continue at the same amount as previous years.

The local authority has recommended to Schools Forum that that the results of the survey are applied to the 2021-22 Schools APT formula funding. Schools Forum make the decision and the LA requires sign off from Councillors to conclude the budget setting process.

The conclusion of the consultation has meant the capping and MFG factors are as follows:

1. +1.98% MFG*

2. +2.00% cap with 100% scaling

*The minimum funding guarantee is a protection for schools against significant year-on-year changes in pupil-led funding. It is a mechanism directed by government to ensure that no school loses a significant amount of funding due to pupil led changes which are beyond its control.

Reasons for decision

The Council is legally required to set the local schools funding formula and must submit this to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) by 21 January 2021.

The recommended changes to the local funding formula follow:

(a) Consultation with schools on their preferred option (based on initial modelling from ESFA, which has since been revised) in December 2020.

(b) Discussion at Schools Forum on 14 January 2021, where the principles underpinning how the funding formula should operate were agreed and minuted in light of the response to the consultation.

Alternative options considered

Following consultation with the Schools Forum on 7 December 2020, all schools in Haringey were consulted on the proposed changes for 2021-22 to the Council’s Schools Funding Formula via e-survey. The consultation started on 7 December 2020, with a deadline of 17 December 2020 for responses from Head teachers and Chairs of Governors.

The following table B shows options available and total responses received for all options:

Table B:

The Chair of Overview and Scrutiny has agreed that the call-in procedure shall not apply to this urgent decision. This is because the decision is urgent and time critical and any delay in implementation caused by the call-in procedure would seriously prejudice the Council's or the public's interests. The Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee has agreed that the decision is both reasonable in all circumstances and that it should be treated as a matter of urgency. This is in accordance with Part 4, Section H, and Paragraph 18 (a) and (b) of the Council Constitution.

CABINET MEMBER: Cllr Kaushika Amin

Signed by Cabinet Member ………………………………

Date …15 January 2021……………………….

Supporting documents: