Agenda item

12.05

On 14 December 2016, The Department for Education (DfE) released Stage 2 of the School National Funding Formula consultation which closes on 22 March 2017.

Alongside the Schools National Funding Formula, the DfE has released Stage 2 of the High Needs National Funding Formula. This follows the same timeline.

Sarah Fogden, Finance Business Partner and Roy Leach, Strategic Lead for Education sufficiency and Access will present a paper that outlines the implications of the new formula for Oxfordshire and suggests a response to consultation.

Education Scrutiny Committee is asked to comment on the Oxfordshire response to the Consultations.

On 14 December 2016, The Department for Education (DfE) had released Stage 2 of the School National Funding Formula consultation which closed on 22 March 2017. Alongside the Schools National Funding Formula, the DfE had released Stage 2 of the High Needs National Funding Formula. This followed the same timeline.

Sarah Fogden, Finance Business Partner and Roy Leach, Strategic Lead for Education sufficiency and Access attended to present a report which outlined the implications of the new formula for Oxfordshire and suggested a response to consultation.

In introducing the report, Sarah Fogden explained that the DfE’s target was that the new scheme would be implemented in 2018-19 via Local Authorities local formula. Full implementation of the Schools National Funding Formula, with funding directly allocated to schools by the EFA/DfE, would commence in 2019-20. To provide stability, no school would receive an overall reduction of more than 3% per pupil as a result of the National Funding Formula and the minimum funding guarantee (MFG) of -1.5% per pupil year on year would continue.

The pupil premium, pupil premium plus, and service premium would continue to operate through the separate allocations. The DfE had confirmed that the Dedicated Schools Grant will be split into four blocks:

·      Early Years (this has already been consulted on - the first allocations have been released for 2017-18);

·      Schools National Funding Formula;

·      Central School Services Block (Taking historic LA commitments and the former ESG Retained Rate element – this has been renamed from Stage One for clarity);

·      High Needs National Funding Formula

The factors used to construct the National Funding Formula and theweightings

given to each factor cause the loss to schools. The main reasons for this were:

·                A smaller basic per pupil allocation;

·                A triple weighting for 'deprivation' (Free School Meals + Ever, in the past six years, FSM + IDACI, the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index);

·                A higher weighting for low prior attainment upon entry to school (which tends to be linked with deprivation); and

·                A smaller lump sum for all schools.

The last point meant that a school would have reduced funding unless there were sufficient gains from the other factors to offset the lump sum loss.

Oxfordshire was a member of the f40 group that represented a group of the lowest funded education authorities in England, where government-set cash allocations for primary and secondary pupils were the lowest in the country. In its response to the consultation, Oxfordshire proposed to agree the 4 main points of the f40 response, that was:

·      The weakness of evidence used to support the proposals;

·      The proportion of weighting given to additional needs rather than basic entitlement;

·      The 3% funding floor, which ‘locks in’ historical differences;

·      The amount invested in education funding and the cost pressures facing all schools.

The High Needs Funding Formula protected all local authorities with a funding floor, so that no authority loses. There was a small increase for Oxfordshire of £1.138m (2.3%). Oxfordshire currently had an overspend against the High Needs block of £1.8m. The increased funding was therefore insufficient to meet current demand and there was no indication of any growth funding to meet increasing need. In addition, the Funding Formula allocated 50% on historic spend which therefore locked in inequities between Local Authorities.

The DfE had funded all LAs to prepare and implement strategic plans for High Needs as well as providing “Capital funding to support the expansion of special provision in schools (including mainstream schools) and other institutions, and progress a new route for more special schools to be established through the free schools programme”. Oxfordshire had received £287,494 to undertake a strategic review of High Needs provision.

Following a discussion around the committee’s concern regarding the quantum of funding being unfair and the fact that the DfE were not actually redistributing the 3% , the discontinuation of per pupil funding, SEN and the detrimental effects on Rural Schools the Committee:

AGREED:  to set up a small working Group comprising Councillor John Howson and Carole Thomson to consider and contribute to the County’s response on the School National funding formula and High Needs Funding Formula.