Agenda item

Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) Budget Planning 2019/20 and Forecast Outturn 2018/19 Update

Report attached.

Minutes:

The Board considered a report from the Senior Finance Officer presenting the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), covering the following areas:

 

Ø  Proposed funding methodology for distribution of the 2019/20 Individual School Block (ISB) allocations;

Ø  2019/20 draft budget; and

Ø  Updated forecast outturn for 2018/19.

 

In addition to the report the Board was also informed of the recent announcement from the Department of Education (DoE) of an additional £409,000 for 2018/19 and 2019/20 financial years.  It was suggested that the additional resource should immediately be allocated to the DSG reserves.

 

The Board discussed the report in detail and commended the officers and all those involved in preparing the budget reports which provide a clear picture of the funding and resources.

 

The Board reiterated its concerns regarding the DfE cap on funding gains and that this was a real terms reduction in schools funding.  It must be clear that schools was being disadvantaged by Government which was not conducive to their wellbeing.  It also did not help that cannot plan resources beyond 2020/21 due to the uncertainty around the Governments spending review.

 

The Chair stressed the good position but it was still a real terms reduction in funding which has been debated a number of times by the Board and has taken a number of difficult decisions recognising the work to get into the current position.

 

In respect to the recent announcement from the DoE the Board agreed that it made sense to allocate the additional resource to the DSG reserves.  However, this resource needs to be looked at as a two-year package, allowing for the fact that the per pupil income is not likely to rise.  The allocation of this resource also needs sensible and evidence based planning – the funds need to be focused on getting maximum benefit.  The Resources Sub Group would consider and make recommendations to the Board in March 2019.

 

Resolved:

 

1. That it be agreed that the 2019/20 individual School Block allocations are distributed in accordance with the principles of the National Funding Formulae in full (as reference in paragraph 3.7, and Appendix 1 of the report).

 

2. That it be noted that the final DSG individual school budgets for mainstream schools will be set in January 2019, based on the decisions and principles made in this report and updated according to the Numbers on Roll as at the October 2018 census.

 

3. That for Maintained Schools only the de-delegation of funding to be centrally retained from the schools block for the following services (as reference in paragraph 3.17 of the report), be agreed:

·         Governor subscriptions;

·         Staff Costs (Trade union duties)

 

4. That it be agreed that the growth fund to support schools be held centrally within the Schools block and distributed to provide the extra required places within the authority (as reference in 3.20 of the report) and it be noted, as per the last DSG report, the revised funding methodology for award of growth fund will be presented back to the Education Board in March 2019.

 

5. That the indicative 2019/20 early years budget, as referenced in 3.23 of the report, be agreed.

 

6. That the commitments held with the central school blocks remain the same, as reference in 3.37 of the report, be agreed.

Supporting documents:

 

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