This meeting of the Wandsworth Schools Forum was scheduled to receive an update on the Enhanced Transition Project, an update on pupil projections, and a report on high needs benchmarking. It was also scheduled to discuss the National Funding Formula for the 2025-26 financial year.

Enhanced Transition Project

A report on the Enhanced Transition Project was scheduled to be presented to the Schools Forum.

The Enhanced Transition Project commenced in January 2024 and was scheduled to run for a year, providing support for 20 pupils in year 6 at Wandsworth primary schools to help them transition to secondary school.

The report says that the project aimed to provide:

an enhanced package of support for 1 year for these pupils to transition into secondary school with the continuation of SEN Support that they received in their primary school without requiring an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

The report pack for the meeting includes a graph that shows that in 2024 there were fewer requests for EHCP assessments than in 2022 or 2023.

The report pack notes that initial feedback from schools indicates that starting the intervention earlier in Year 6 would have had a greater impact on pupil outcomes.

The report goes on to request that £38,000 is set aside from the SEN support fund for the 2025-26 financial year to fund a second year of the pilot project.

Pupil Population Projections and Implications

The report pack contains a report titled [Pupil Population Projections and Implications](https://democracy.wandsworth.gov.uk/documents/s116030/Item+4.+Pupil+Population+Projections+and+Implications.pdf).

The report provides an update on pupil projections in the borough. It states that:

birth rates are a strong indication of future population trends and are currently forecast to continue to decrease until at least 2030. The decline in numbers of births is likely to drive the reduced need for school places for the next 10 years or more.

The report pack includes a table of primary school reception year forecasts from 2021 to 2033. A separate table shows secondary year 7 forecasts for the same period.

The report says:

School place planners have the unenviable task of considering their statutory responsibility to ensure there are enough school places within the local area while balancing material changes in populations in the following years.

The report goes on to describe how the council has been reducing the Published Admission Numbers (PANs)¹ of schools to ensure that the schools in Wandsworth remain viable as demand for school places decreases. It goes on to describe the changes that have been made in each of the primary school planning areas in the borough.

The report concludes by saying:

The next 10 years will be a challenging time for school budgets as the system adapts to a steady decline in pupil rolls and the resulting reduction in school budgets if nothing is done. It is critical that we work to ensure school classes are as full as possible.

High Needs Benchmarking

The report pack contains a report titled [High Needs Benchmarking](https://democracy.wandsworth.gov.uk/documents/s116032/Item+5.+High+Needs+Benchmarking.pdf).

The report provides a summary of data from the Department for Education's High Needs Benchmarking Tool.

The report says:

This paper looks at the highlights of the benchmarking data from the High Needs Benchmarking tool provided by the Department for Education (DfE) alongside the FY 2024-25 Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) allocation at a nominal and per pupil funding level for each Local Authority in Inner London and at a national level.

The report notes that Wandsworth's gross DSG allocation is the 10th highest per pupil nationally, and its High Needs Block allocation is the 2nd highest per pupil nationally.

The report goes on to summarise Wandsworth's spending on high needs provision compared to other local authorities, noting that:

Wandsworth spends 85% more of its High Needs Block (HNB) funding on place funding for Special schools compared to its 5 statistical neighbours and 38% more compared to Inner London as a whole due to Wandsworth having some of the highest levels of local provision in the country.

It also notes that:

Wandsworth spends relatively the same amount of HNB funding on Non-maintained and Independent schools compared to its 5 statistical neighbours however 64% more compared to Inner London as a whole.

National Funding Formula FY 2025-26

The report pack contains a report titled [National Funding Formula FY 2025-26](https://democracy.wandsworth.gov.uk/documents/s116037/Item+6.+National+Funding+Formula+FY+2025-26.pdf).

The report provides an update on the National Funding Formula (NFF) for the 2025-26 financial year.

It notes that the Autumn Budget Statement released on 30 October 2024 allocated an increase in funding of £2.3 billion, of which £1 billion was ringfenced for the high needs budget. The remaining £1.3 billion was to be passed on to schools via the National Funding Formula and Local Funding Formulae.

The report explains that the funding formula for 2025-26 would include funding previously allocated separately via the Teachers Pay Additional Grant (TPAG), the Teachers Pension Employer’s Contribution Grant (TPECG), and the Core Schools Budget Grant (CSBG).

The report goes on to say that after rolling these existing grants into the formula, the average increase in school funding would be 0.5%. It also notes that the requirement for local authorities to move their Local Funding Formulae 10% closer to the NFF each year would remain in place.

The report describes Wandsworth's historic approach to school funding, saying:

Historically, Wandsworth’s Local Funding Formula has provided some protection to primary schools as pupil numbers have fallen in that phase. As well as this, it has focussed on the Free School Meal Factor as the primary factor through which to distribute deprivation funding. The total deprivation funding has been high in Wandsworth.

It goes on to note that:

LAs are still permitted to use a Local Funding Formula, but the requirement for the LFF to move at least 10% closer to the NFF means that in Wandsworth these historical attributes of the formula are being diluted. i.e. funding is moving from primary schools to secondary schools, and the high focus on FSM as a favoured factor is being replaced with a more even split between other deprivation factors (IDACI)

The report goes on to say:

Deciding to keep the formula as similar as possible to the current LFF for FY 2025-26 would again provide protection to primary schools.

The report pack includes several tables showing the changes in pupil numbers in primary and secondary schools, and the differences between the National Funding Formula rates and the Local Funding Formula rates for the current year, 2024-25.

The report concludes by saying:

It is for Schools Forum to shape the strategy behind the speed at which we move towards the National Funding Formula.