Meeting documents

ITEM EX7

EXECUTIVE - 11 DECEMBER 2001

VARIATIONS IN SUMS AVAILABLE FOR DELEGATED SCHOOL BUDGETS

Report by Chief Education Officer and Director of Business Support & County Treasurer

1. The purpose of this report is to examine the sum available for growth to the delegated schools budget in the light of the overall Education budget. It will then be necessary to consult with schools as to how any such growth is allocated. Additionally, consideration will need to be given to changes in teachers’ pay and demographic growth.

The Education Medium Term Financial Plan

2. When the Council agreed its budget in February 2001, the Education element of the Medium Term Financial Plan contained £4.755m unallocated. The position is now somewhat different. A provisional updated draft of the plan can be found at Annex 1(Download as .rtf file) which shows, in place of the unallocated sum, a need for a saving of £0.540m to be found. The draft Education budget to be reported initially to the Learning and Culture Scrutiny Committee on 18 December will examine ways of eliminating this shortfall.
3. The detail of the changes reducing the £4.755m unallocated growth to a saving to be found of £0.540m can be found in Annex 1. However the major factors are set out below.

(a) SSA

4. The changes to Education SSA for 2002/03 are having a major impact.

(1) Post 16

There will be a new funding regime for schools with sixth forms from April 2002. LEAs will be topsliced the major element of their Post 16 SSA sub block and this will be passed to schools via the LEA from the Learning and Skills Council. The amount topsliced is the amount currently spent on sixth form provision in schools as per the Authority’s Section 52 Budget Statement, plus an amount for the LSC to formula fund schools for the qualifications which their pupils achieve. This additional sum is currently estimated at £1.865m and effectively targets growth to secondary schools.

(2) Under Fives

The DfES has earmarked about £0.5m of SSA to the Under Five sub block for special educational needs in early years. The LEA will need to demonstrate that they are undertaking this responsibility, which is a requirement of the Early Years Development and Childcare Plan.

(b) Teachers’ Pay Award/Improved Conditions for LSAs

5. The February plan included only 3% for the teachers’ pay award. 3.5% is now provided for at an additional £0.838m, although this may still be insufficient. Schools have been consulted on improving the pay and conditions of LSAs. Part of the cost of this was built into the original Medium Term Plan. There is now an additional cost of £0.529m in 2002/03. Both of these items will be added to the delegated schools budget, but erode the sum available for real growth.

(c) Unavoidable Pressures on the Central LEA

6. To date central pressures of £1m (excluding Under 5s above) have been identified. These are mainly in respect of external funding tapering or being deleted, pressures in respect of Home to School Transport, and the need to respond to changes in ICT. These pressures will need to be reduced in order to produce an Education budget in line with the Executive’s strategy of funding Education for increases in SSA.

Distribution of the Additional Funding to Delegated Schools

7. Although at this stage it appears that there will be no real terms growth for schools other than in respect of those with sixth forms, it is nevertheless necessary to plan for such an eventuality. As more work is undertaken on putting together the Education budget before Council agrees the overall budget in February, growth may become available. Additionally, it is necessary to put forward proposals for dealing with changes in the teachers’ pay award and demographic growth.

(a) Growth

8. Education Committee, in both December 1999 and 2000, received reports on "Activity Led Funding". This approach attempts to quantify an idealised Age Weighted Pupil Unit (AWPU) value for given class sizes and teacher contact ratios. It has demonstrated that the current AWPU values for Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 in particular are in greatest need of increase. To this extent, any growth would have best been targetted to these age groups.
9. However, there is currently significant uncertainty as to how the new Post 16 funding arrangements will impact on individual schools. There may be opportunity for schools with sixth forms which receive additional funding to cross subsidise Key Stages 3 and 4. We will need to consider the possibility of further consultation when the position is clearer.

(b) Teachers’ Pay

10. The teachers’ pay award is normally announced in late January. There is little capacity in the budget to meet the costs of the pay award over and above the 3.5% currently forecast. Should there be an award greater than the 3.5% allowed for, the excess will need to be met by schools from the existing delegated budget.

(c) Demographic Growth

11. Actual figures for demographic growth will not be known until late January. In the event of demographic growth being less than the plan, it is proposed that the additional funding will be available for growth. In the event of demographic growth being above the current forecast level of £1.3m, consideration will need to be given to increasing AWPUs at less than inflation.

RECOMMENDATIONS

12. The Executive is RECOMMENDED to authorise the Chief Education Officer to consult schools on the proposals set out in the report.

Background Papers: None

December 2001