Finance Information Groups Finance Update Finance Information Groups   Siobhan Cheeseman Head of Schools Financial Services

High Needs funding from 1 April Financial Controls Closedown Update topics School Budgets High Needs funding from 1 April Financial Controls Closedown Update from External Funding

School Budgets  

Background and context Government are introducing a soft NFF from 1 April 2018 with some additional funding +3% Local Funding Formula for 2018-19 and 2019-20 Current arrangements date back to 2005-06 so NFF is long overdue Government intends to introduce a Hard NFF in the future - requires a change to Primary Legislation – so may not be for many years

How much more are we going to get? Table 1 figures subject to rounding   DSG Schools Block Movement in funding from previous year current year £’m % 2017-18 £839.4m 2018-19 £867.0m +£27.6m +3.3% 2019-20 £889.3m +£22.3m +2.6% +£49.9m +5.9% Once NFF is fully implemented £901.5m +£12.2m +1.4% +£62.1m +7.4%   A significant proportion of the additional funding relates to secondary phase Above figures are before growth in pupil numbers

Consultation We ran a consultation from 30 October to 26 November – just over 4 weeks All maintained schools, academies and free schools were invited to respond Received 177 responses in total (31%) Some schools & individuals submitted more than one response A big thank you to all schools who found the time to respond – it’s appreciated  

Consultation responses All Responses Responses excl. multiples No. % of schools Primary 112 25% 105 23% Secondary 60 61% 45 46% Selective 31 97% 21 66% Non Selective 29 44% 24 36% Special 5 Total 177 31% 155 27%  

The approval process 1). Schools’ views captured via consultation 2). Forum consider & make recommendations 3). KCC Members consider Forum recommendations 4). Cabinet Member makes decision Cabinet Member, Roger Gough, involved with all four stages

What happened . . . Forum made their recommendations No changes were made by KCC Members Cabinet Member took decision on 19 December Details of that decision were the main item of the Kelsi e-bulletin 14 December 2017

What next . . . We have submitted details of our local formula funding to the ESFA … we await their approval We are now working on budget templates We aim to publish at the end of February (as normal) 2019-20 will be based on increasing rates as we take further steps towards NFF

Three year plan methodology 2018-19 will be final 2019-20 will reflect increased Low Prior Attainment, Ever6FSM and Minimum Funding Level rates No info for 2020-21 so we will use 2019-20 rates with a 0% MFG Schools will still be able to reflect their latest pupil projections for years 2 and 3

High Needs Funding  

Background The overall High Needs budget is under sustained pressure Mainstream High Needs demand has been the greatest We introduced, with Forum support, some temporary measures to reduce the costs 30% reduction to all new claims from 1 Sept 17 No payments until December 2017 These temporary measures come to an end on 31 March 2018

What is happening for 2018-19? We still have a budget of £23m for Mainstream High Needs From 1 April 2018 the LA is introducing Need Specific Top Up funding rates These rates are graduated to reflect the severity of need The rates were shared with all schools via ebulletin on 6 December 2017 Schools have been written to for all existing children with their new rate

Beyond 2018-19? The outlook for all (not just mainstream) High Needs funding looks very challenging The High Needs Block is set to receive tiny increases for the next 3 to 4 years Demand is still very high We are now looking at what we can do to manage demand for some of our higher cost placements

Financial Controls  

Finance Scheme Governs the financial relationship between the Local Authority and its maintained schools We are currently reviewing our Finance Scheme in two areas of financial controls 1. Reviewing the process around schools in deficit 2. Looking at the Balance Control Mechanism (BCM)

Closedown  

Closedown – 23rd March 2018 All schools to close accounts by 23rd March Closedown pack will be emailed by 1st February to all maintained schools Requested bank statements 16th March Slight changes to year end analysis form you MUST NOT process additional transactions in the OLD year once you have completed and submitted your year end accounts

External Funding follow up