Agenda item

Report of Chief Officer for Children’s Services and County Treasurer (DEF/21  /07) attached.

DISCUSSION:

The Forum considered the report of the Chief Officer for Children’s Services and County Treasurer (DEF/21/07) regarding the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) and schools funding outturn report 2020/21.

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The Forum also noted the respective minutes of the Schools Finance Group (SFG) of 26 May 2021.

In summary:-

-the draft outturn position for the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) was an overspend of £22.5m (comprising individual school balances of £21.1m, ringfenced balances of £5.4m and cumulative DSG Deficit of just under £49m;

-although this was an improvement of £740,000 from month 11 position the continued demand on High Needs and the growing demand on SEN placements within the independent sector continued to drive the pressure which remained extremely concerning;

-the overspend on the High Needs Block was expected to be £22.8m at the start of the year but had worsened by £6.8m in year to an overspend of £29.6m; and 

-in line with government requirements the DSG Deficit balance of £49m would be transferred to a DSG adjustment account.

Members comments included:-

-in respect of the report summary (above) and table 2 (High Needs 2020/21 summary), a simplified way to assist Members to quickly identify, track and understand changes in the deficit and funding gap, with a separate accounting line was requested;

-that Members wanted to be alerted to any savings in key areas where they would not necessarily wish to see savings/change to service (eg paragraph 5.11 of the Report: SEN Therapies – Multi-Sensory Impairment (MSI) where the contract 2020/21 had temporarily come back in house to DCC  and support commissioned from Babcock had seen a genuine saving rather than any reduction in service; and paragraph 6.1 of the Report: the Early Years Disability Access Fund;

-clarification of figures and how they were presented re: paragraphs 5.22 and 5.23, independent special schools £2.5m overspend;

-a detailed breakdown of the Alternative Provision (AP) £533,000 underspend was requested by the AP representative; 

-two academy Members expressed their dissatisfaction at a recent letter sent by the County Council to its staff directly employed within maintained schools advising that a token honorarium would be made in recognition of their work carried out during the pandemic. They suggested that this was divisive as it did not include all the Devon schools family. They had written to the Council’s Chief Executive and now sought an assurance (a) that this was to be funded directly by the County Council and not from any education/DSG budget and (b) that the LA did not appreciate maintained staff over academy staff. The Head of Education & Learning stated that the Chief Executive would be sending a formal response, however she confirmed that this token was being made as the employer of maintained school staff from its own funds. She personally absolutely appreciated the phenomenal response of all the Devon schools family during the pandemic which had been recognised nationally also.       

DECISION:

(a) that the DSG Draft Outturn position (subject to Statement of Accounts sign off) as set out in sections 1-6 of Report (DEF/21/07);

(b) that the surplus budget carry forwards for Schools, de-delegated, central school services and High needs as set out in Section 7, table 3 be noted;

(c)  that the Early Years surplus carry forwards as set out in Section 7, table 3 be approved; (Vote: Schools, Academies and PVI members)

Table 3: Surplus budget carry forward requests

(d) that the Individual School Balances carry forwards as set out in Section 7, table 4 be noted;

(e) that the DSG Deficit Reserve transfer as set out in Section 7, table 5 be noted;

(f) that a detailed breakdown of the Alternative Provision (AP) £533,000 underspend be provided to the AP representative; and

(g) that Officers follow up on other Members comments raised above.

ACTION: 

County Treasurer (Adrian Fox)