This meeting of the Schools Forum was scheduled to receive updates on the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), its constituent blocks, the National Funding Formula (NFF), and accounting arrangements for business rates. The Forum was also scheduled to review and revise the fees that the Council charges schools for converting to academy status.

High Needs Block Update

The report pack included for discussion an update on the High Needs Block (HNB) of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) ¹. The report pack forecasts a deficit of £0.9 million in the HNB, largely due to a projected overspend on Independent SEN Placements. This is despite a £1.4 million transfer from the Schools Block, agreed by the Forum in January 2024, to help mitigate the overspend.

The Dedicated Schools Grant is a ring-fenced grant that local authorities in England receive from central government to fund schools. The High Needs Block funds support for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

The report pack explains that spending on Independent SEN placements has risen from £7.66 million in 2021-22 to £16.05 million in 2023-24. This overspend is being funded from DSG reserves.

The report pack describes how the LA is seeking to reduce the number of Independent SEN Placements by:

• recognising EHCP ² band uplifts.
• recognising children and young people (CYP) who are awaiting a place in a special school.
• recognising the need for additional Designated Special Provisions (DSPs) in the borough.
• reviewing the method of allocating SEN support to schools/academies.
• reviewing the costs of all independent placements when renewal is due.

An Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) is a legal document that describes a child or young person's special educational, health and social care needs. It explains the extra help that will be given to meet those needs and how that help will support the child or young person to achieve their goals.

The report pack notes that the LA has agreed a 10% increase to EHCP bands, which will come into force in September 2024. It also notes that agreement has been reached to provide a higher banding level for children and young people (CYP) who are in mainstream schools whilst awaiting a place in a special school. This is a new, seventh, band in the mainstream top up table, that will apply from September 2024.

The report pack says that the LA is reviewing the level of Designated Special Provision (DSP) in the borough. It also notes that the LA is reviewing the provision of additional SEN support to schools and academies.

Academy Conversion Services and Charges

The report pack includes a request that the Forum agree to an increase in the fees that schools are charged by the Council to help it meet its statutory duty to facilitate the process of converting to academy status.

The report pack explains that this process incurs legal fees, and that these fees alone were in excess of £130,000 for the recent conversions of Boxgrove Primary School and Kidbrooke Park Primary School. In 2018, the Forum agreed to a fixed fee of £7,000 to be paid by schools converting to academy status to help meet these costs. The report pack says that, following recent experience, this fee does not adequately reflect the costs incurred.

The report pack therefore recommends that the fee be changed to a sliding scale between £10,000 and £25,000, based on a standard rate of £9,500, plus a per pupil charge of £7.50. The report pack contains an example of how this would be applied. It shows that the smallest school would pay £10,000 and the largest school would pay £24,980.

The report pack also recommends that the exemption from fees for schools that have been judged 'inadequate' by Ofsted and have therefore been issued with an Academy Order by the Secretary of State for Education (SoS) be removed.

2024-25 Dedicated Schools Grant Update & NNDR Accounting

The report pack included an update on the DSG. This sets out the current expected year-end position for each of the four blocks that make up the DSG ³.

The four blocks of the Dedicated Schools Grant are the Schools Block, the Central School Services Block, the High Needs Block and the Early Years Block

Overall, the DSG is forecast to be in deficit by £0.9 million, entirely due to the forecast overspend in the HNB, described above.

The report pack sets out the expected year-end position for each of the blocks:

• Schools Block: Balanced budget
• Central School Services Block: Balanced budget
• High Needs Block: £0.9 million overspend
• Early Years Block: Balanced budget

The report pack explains that there has been a reduction in the funding received for the Schools Block for 2024-25, as three schools - Bannockburn Primary School, Boxgrove Primary School and Kidbrooke Park Primary School - have become academies, and the funds for these schools have therefore been transferred to their academy funding.

The report pack notes that the Central School Services Block ⁴ (CSSB) has been reduced by 7.5%, or £287,000 from 2023-24, and that this will lead to savings and efficiencies being sought in Schools Interventions and Targeted Support.

The Central School Services Block (CSSB) funds services that the local authority delivers to all maintained schools and academies.

The report pack notes that the Department for Education (DfE) has made a new grant available to schools, called the Core School Budget Grant (CSBG), to fund the Teachers Pay Award from September 2024 to March 2025. The pay award is expected to be 5.5%. The report pack says that the grant is calculated based on pupil numbers and eligibility for Free School Meals (FSM) over the last six years. An appendix to the report pack gives an indicative allocation of the CSBG to every school in the borough.

The report pack explains that the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) now pays business rates on behalf of maintained schools and academies. This means that Royal Greenwich Council no longer has to pay business rates for these schools, and instead receives a payment from the ESFA to cover these costs. The report pack says that this payment was £4.2 million in June 2024.

2025-26 Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) Update and National Funding Formula Review

The report pack notes that the indicative DSG allocations for 2025-26 had not been released at the time of writing, but that this is expected to happen shortly.