Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole School Funding Consultation 2019
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Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole School Funding Consultation 2019-20 Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole School Funding 2019-2020 Consultation 23 November 2018 Consultation closes on 7 December 2018 1 Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole School Funding Consultation 2019-20 2 Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole School Funding Consultation 2019-20 CONTENTS 1 Introduction 4 2 School Funding for BCP 2019-20 8 3 Mainstream Schools National Formula (Option 1) 9 4 Development of Local BCP Formula 12 5 High Needs Block 18 6 Transfer of Mainstream Funding to High Needs (Option 2) 22 7 Formula Affordability – Impact of Final Data 27 8 Financial Summary of Formula Options 28 9 Central Schools Services Block – Services for all Schools 29 10 Next Steps 31 Appendix 1 National Funding Formula 2019-20 33 Appendix 2 National Formula 2019-20 applied to BCP Schools 34 Appendix 3 BCP Draft DSG Budget 2019-20 36 Appendix 4 a. Illustrative Transfer Levels: NFF Funding Released 37 b. School Level Impact of Transfer Options 39 Appendix 5 Funding for LA Services for Schools 47 Appendix 6 LA Statutory Education Functions for Schools 48 Appendix 7 Summary of Consultation Questions 52 Appendix 8 Glossary of Terms 53 3 Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole School Funding Consultation 2019-20 1 Introduction Local Government Reorganisation in Dorset means that one Local Authority (LA) will deliver services to Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) residents from April 2019. This includes services funded by the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) with each existing LA working together to ensure service continuity is maintained for all stakeholders. This consultation concerns DSG funding allocations for the financial year 2019-20 only. It contains the detail of the DfE national school funding system through the DSG and options for implementation by the new LA. Schools will be aware that a Shadow Schools Forum (SSF) has been established to undertake the consultation and decision-making role to support the Shadow LA preparing for 1 April 2019. The SSF has met twice, supported by working groups, and has made good progress in steering proposals within a challenging timetable. Work has needed to be prioritised with key issues and potential solutions identified early. These are the main focus of this consultation as we must achieve the timescales for decision-making set by central government. To provide the overall context for the DSG other budgets are considered only in outline in this consultation with the SSF considering these in more detail at the December and January meetings. The DSG is allocated to the LA through four separate funding blocks to support expenditure on early years, mainstream schools, pupils with high needs and central school services. The national arrangements for financial year 2019-20 are similar to last year but schools will see some changes in the local approach in the move towards consistency across the new geographical area. A national funding formula (NFF) for early years (2, 3 & 4 year olds) was introduced from 2017-18 for the three years up to 2019-20. The DSG funding for 2017-18 provided an increase compared with the previous year but with funding levels remaining static throughout the three years. Each of the three Dorset LAs have the same hourly funding rate from the DfE but have implemented different local formulae for providers. The development of a consistent approach for BCP is in progress with a separate consultation currently underway with the sector, including where there are nursery classes in mainstream schools. This document, therefore, considers only the national changes and local proposals for the remaining three DSG funding blocks. Section 2 provides a summary of forecast funding levels for BCP. Schools National Funding Formula (NFF) 2019-20 The most significant decision for BCP Council and the SSF is how the mainstream schools NFF will be implemented to take into account the growing level of funding needed to support pupils with high needs. The new BCP formula will be effective for maintained schools from April 2019 and for academies from September 2019. It remains the Government’s aspiration to fund all mainstream schools in the same way and the factors and methods within the NFF schools formula are expected to prevail now for some years. Unit values will continue to change over time and there is likely to be some evolution and refinement to reflect changing government policy. 4 Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole School Funding Consultation 2019-20 The updated 2019-20 NFF for mainstream schools is described in Section 3. As indicated last year the DfE has not provided LAs with sufficient funding to implement in full for 2019-20. Individual school gains are capped at a further 3% per pupil (cumulative 6.09% compared with 2017-18) for national affordability. The starting point before any other options are considered is to look at the impact of the 2019-20 NFF calculated for each school. This is considered in Section 4 as Option 1. It requires a new discretionary factor to be introduced into the local formula to enable almost all aspects of the NFF methodology to be adopted in the calculation of individual school budgets. The additional factor is needed because the NFF uses 2017-18 as the base year for Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG) per pupil changes, rather than the previous year (2018-19) as for the current local formulae. It is important to note in considering Option 1 that the NFF uses data from the October 2017 school census (lagged) to provide the total funding to the LA but the local formula must use the equivalent data at October 2018. Data movements could therefore prevent this option being fully affordable. A method to adjust the formula when final data is received from the Education Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) is considered towards the end of this document in Section 7. Other options need to be considered should it be agreed that a level of the NFF should be transferred to support pupils with high needs from central budgets rather than be allocated directly to mainstream schools through the local formula. High Needs Budget Pressures High needs budgets include funding for special schools, alternative provision and pupils with high needs in mainstream schools and further education (FE) colleges. It is clear that the growth in demand for Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and the trend of pupils permanently excluded from schools is unaffordable within the high needs funding allocation from the DfE for 2019-20. Details of the national and local picture are provided in Section 5. The SSF received a report in October considering the high needs budgets across BCP. This included an analysis from consultants of the main drivers of growth in recent years with an assessment of what actions, including those already planned or being implemented, should be considered to manage demand. The link to the report is included in Section 5. Policies and tools have been developed and action plans are in place within each LA working in partnership with schools to address high needs cost pressures. However, it must be recognised that potential solutions to reduce costs significantly are for the medium and longer term, and will require more pupils with an EHCP or currently excluded remaining in a mainstream setting. Work is on-going to manage demand and consider the pattern of high needs provision across BCP and this will be supported by a High Needs Block Financial Strategy Group of the SSF. Funding Transfer to High Needs 2019-20 Schools Forum has an important consultation role with oversight of all DSG budgets and will need to decide if a level of mainstream school funding is to be transferred to support the growth in pupils with SEND or excluded from mainstream schools. The decision can be made for 2019-20 only with a fresh decision needed next year for 2020-21. 5 Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole School Funding Consultation 2019-20 A funding transfer can be agreed by the SSF of up to 0.5% of Schools Block funding. A higher level would require the approval of the DfE. The alternative to a funding transfer is that the high needs budget growth is restricted to the level of funding provided through the national high needs formula. With the growing number of pupils needing provision within the high needs budget, there continues to be pressure on the level of top up funding and the affordability of other services supporting pupils, including those in mainstream schools. How the NFF could be adjusted to support varying levels of transfer is considered in Section 6. The development of these proposals for consultation has been supported by the SSF but it is important to note that no decision has been made. The transfer levels modelled provide no indication of what that level might be (if at all). The financial impact on categories of schools under all options is shown in Section 8 at summary level with the detail for individual schools in Appendix 4. Final decisions on the local formula for BCP will be made at the Shadow Executive meeting on 15 January 2019, after taking into account the views of schools and decisions made by the SSF. During December 2018 the ESFA will provide the October 2018 mainstream school data to enable final mainstream budgets to be calculated and overall affordability of planned unit values to be assessed. Growth Fund As in previous years, the SSF is to agree the level of the Growth Fund and how it is to be allocated to schools with basic need growth. Proposals will be considered by the SSF by January 2019. The SSF has needed to prioritise its work with this document not including growth fund proposals for all schools to consider.