Issue - meetings

Cabinet Member: Children, Education and Young People’s Services

Forward Plan Ref: 2024/360

Contact: Jane Billington, Strategic Finance Business Partner – Children’s Services (Jane.Billington@oxfordshire.gov.uk)

Report by Director of Children’s Services (CMDCEYPS5).

The Chair of Council has agreed that this item will be exempt from Scrutiny call-in.

The Cabinet Member is RECOMMENDED to

a)    Approve the final funding formula for 2025/26 for submission to DfE

This follows consultation with the Schools Forum which agreed that OCC will continue to fund schools at the National Funding Formula level. Any surplus funding as a result of the application of the APT will be used to support mainstream schools in their approaches to inclusion.

Recommendations approved.

The Chair noted that there was a meeting of the School’s Forum on 20 January to discuss this matter and remarked that it was no longer the case that the national funding formula was sufficient to provide a surplus or even match required funding for Oxfordshire schools.

Jane Billington clarified

-       The formula applied equally to both maintained schools and academies.

-       This decision applied only to maintained primary and secondary schools.

-       Funding would be made available separately for special needs, high needs, and early years.

The Chair said he was seriously concerned that the Council, having adopted the prescribed formula earlier than necessary, found itself in a position by which funding received from the Department for Education was not sufficient to meet the formula. He added that he did not want a trend to develop by which councils would be expected to fund schools in the future.

The Chair APPROVED the recommendations.

ecommendations approved.