Equality Impact Assessment Template - 2013

Schools Funding Budget number (if Name of proposal/policy 2017-18 applicable)

Children, Families Service area responsible Cabinet meeting date 6 September 2016 and Education

Name of completing officer Beth Baines Date EqIA created 9 August 2016

Approved by Director / Assistant Jon Lee Date of approval 1 September 2016 Director

The Equality Act 2010 places a ‘General Duty’ on all public bodies to have ‘Due regard’ to: - Eliminating discrimination, harassment and victimisation - Advancing equality of opportunity - Fostering good relations

We do this by undertaking equality impact assessments (EqIAs) to help us understand the implications of policies and decisions on people with protected characteristics – EqIAs are our way of evidencing this.

All assessments must be published on the NCC equalities web pages. All Cabinet papers where an EqIA is relevant MUST include a link to the web page where this assessment will be published. If you require assistance in getting your EqIA published, please contact [email protected] PART 1

Description of current provision/policy and main beneficiaries/stakeholders

Currently each local authority applies the schools formula factors and rates decided locally from the DfE list of allowable factors.

Annually officers model the impact of any proposed changes in the local formula and consult with Schools and Schools Forum before the Local Authority decides on the final formula factors and rates to be used in the subsequent year.

The Schools National formula funding is proposed by the Government to apply to all maintained Primary and Secondary schools and academies.

The current Northants consultation proposals for 2017-18 are for the staged introduction of formula factors that will come into place nationally in the next few years but are currently not used in the existing Northants school funding formula..

The main potential beneficiaries will be the schoolswhere there are higher numbers of pupils :  residing in a sparse area,  with low prior attainment levels and  with English as a second language as compared to the corresponding reduction in the factors where the funding is moved from.

Description of proposal under consideration/development

Schools formula and growth fund funding consultation for 2017-18 budgets. Changes proposed to the formula for consultation are based on the overarching principle that Northamptonshire schools should move towards the national funding formula in stages from 2017-18 in preparation for the first year in which it will be fully implemented (2020-21). The proposed changes would see three formula funding factors that are currently optional being brought into the Northamptonshire formula calculation, these are:

1) ‘Sparsity’ - funded by reducing the lump sum across all schools; 2) ‘Prior Attainment’ - funded by either reducing AWPU (Age Weighted Pupil Unit) rates or Deprivation Factor rates or a combination of both; and 3) ‘English as an Additional Language’ - funded by either reducing AWPU (Age Weighted Pupil Unit) rates or Deprivation Factor rates or a combination of both These changes would take place on a phased basis i.e. moving towards the national average funding rates for these new factors over a number of years in steps rather than changing in full for 2017-18.

Data used in this Equality Impact Assessment (general population data where appropriate but each EqIA should contain information on people who use the service under consideration – if this is not applicable to your proposal then you probably do not need to do an EqIA) Data Source (include link where published) Please summarise what the data tells us – for example “X number of people use this service, X are male, Y are female etc” Education Funding Agency Information on the National Formula Funding plans that were to be introduced https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/schools-funding from 2017-18 are to be moved back to 2018-19. Details of the consultation to show https://consult.education.gov.uk/funding-policy-unit/schools-national-funding- principles of which formula factors the EFA would like to use in the national funding formula formula (page 18).

Consultation document will be published on the Schools Consultation Webpage on This will include the detailed report outlining the reasons for the proposals, the 1st September. consultation questions and the appendices and PowerPoint presentation that will http://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/en/councilservices/educationandlearning/s be taken to the briefing sessions for schools within the Local Authority Updates, ervices/schlfin/pages/financeconsultations.aspx hosted by the Director of Children’s Services. These are being held in Kettering on the 20th Sept and Towcester on the 29th Sept.

The appendices of the consultation document show:

Appendix A: DFE Sparsity Factor Diagram

Appendix B: An overview of the potential impact of including the three formula factors in the 2017-18 schools formula factor funding

Appendix C: The potential impact of including the three formula factors in the 2017-18 schools formula funding

Northamptonshire Schools Forum As part of the consultation and in line with the School and Early Years Finance Regulations, at its meeting on the 4th October 2016 the Schools Forum will receive: https://cmis.northamptonshire.gov.uk/cmis5live/Committees/tabid/110/ctl/View CMIS_CommitteeDetails/mid/558/id/446/Default.aspx  An overview of the responses to the consultation and the Local Authority’s response to the key points fed back through the consultation process and the adjustments being made to the initial proposals;  The DfE announcements on the outcome from the first stage of the national funding formula consultation (if available); and  If any national changes/feedback impact on the local (Northant’s) proposals

The papers will be published in the 4th October Forum papers. Given the short timescale between the closure of the consultation and the Forum meeting some of the papers may not be available until shortly before the meeting. Tick the relevant box for each line Based on the above information, what impact will this proposal have on the following groups? Positive Negative Neutral Unsure Sex  Gender Reassignment  Age  Disability  Race & Ethnicity  Sexual Orientation  Religion or Belief (or No Belief)  Pregnancy & Maternity  Human Rights (Please see articles in  toolkit) Other Groups (rural isolation, socio-  economic exclusion etc)

Initial impact Explain your findings above Actions identified to mitigate, advance equality or fill gaps in information

Impact is expected to be small as budgets are protected by the National Minimum 1) May cap increases for gainers to contribute to the costs of any funding Funding Guarantee which does not allow schools to fall below 1.5% of their per changes pupil budget in the prior year. This is a form of funding protection for schools. 2) Impact changes in stages over 3 years to minimise turbulence but prepare schools for introduction of National Funding Formula The overall impact each year will be limited and therefore the proposals are considered to have low impact due to the requirement to apply the DfE’s national minimum funding guarantee (MFG) mechanism, which protects schools so that they cannot receive funding reductions of more than -1.5% of per pupil funding from one year to the next.

The financial impact is likely to be positive towards schools with larger groups of people from different race & ethnic backgrounds where English is not the pupils first language and rural schools as the individual budget share of these schools would increase. This does not mean the school has to spend that funding on pupils with EAL or who meet the criteria of sparsity, but that the overall schools budget share would increase.

Do you need to undertake further work (e.g. consultation, further equality analysis) based on the impact and actions identified above? If yes, set this out below and then carry out the work and complete Part 2

Consultation document will be published on the Schools Consultation Webpage on 1st September. http://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/en/councilservices/educationandlearning/services/schlfin/pages/financeconsultations.aspx Consultation events as noted above.

We have modelled the impacts using the Authority Proforma Tool from the Education Funding Agendy that formed the 2016-17 schools budgets (based on October 2015 census). The results of the modelling form part of the consultation documentation and give the estimated impacts of the changes at individual school level. We will update these results once we receive the latest data set (October 2016 census) and with the outcome of the consultation is known. A summary of the consultation responses will feed into the School Forum discussion on the 4th October. The consultation responses and Schools Forum discussion will then inform the decisions made by the Council.

The outcome of the consultation and the amendments to the initial proposals will be presented and discussed at the Schools Forum on the 4th October and will inform the decisions to be made on setting the schools formula for submission to the EFA by the 20th January 2017.

Delegated authority has been given to the Director for Children, Families and Education and the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services to finalise the formula factors following consultation with schools and Schools Forum.

PART 2 – if required

Consultation, follow up data and information gathered from actions identified above What does this information tell us?

This will be completed after the Northants consultation and then the updated EqIA can be published

Final impact analysis (taking the findings from Part 2 into account) – including review date if required