The Cornwall Schools Forum is scheduled to meet on 12 December 2025 to discuss pupil growth funding and the schools funding formula for the 2026/27 financial year. The forum is expected to consider information on the reduced budget to fund pupil growth and falling rolls, and to endorse a preferred option for allocating this funding. Members will also discuss and vote on recommendations regarding the school funding formula, central school services budgets and de-delegated budgets for maintained schools.

Pupil Growth Funding

The forum is scheduled to discuss a report updating them on the approach to dealing with the reduced budget for pupil growth and falling rolls for the current year and likely the next few years. This is due to commitments Cornwall Council has made to fund new and growing schools.

The report states that there are not believed to be any school expansion schemes now, or on the horizon, that warrant any planned growth funding. It also says that all recent expansion works that triggered planned growth funding have been paid in previous financial years, so the only outstanding payments are those that the council is already aware of, along with the underwriting of places.

The report proposes two options for dealing with the reduced funding:

• Adjusting the methodology to reduce the number of pupils to fund and/or increase the threshold at which exceptional growth payments kick in.
• Reducing per pupil funding rates and/or introduce a multiplier to reduce final awards by a fixed percentage.

The report recommends the second option, reducing per pupil funding rates or introducing a multiplier, as the preferred approach.

School Funding Formula

The Cornwall Schools Forum is expected to discuss the authority's proposed schools funding formula for 2026/27. The report pack includes discussion of:

• Capping and scaling options to ensure the cost of setting school budgets does not exceed the schools block of Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG).
• National Funding Formula (NFF) factor values.
• Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG) rate, which is used to protect the change in per pupil funding compared to the previous year.
• De-delegation for maintained schools.

The report notes that local authorities continue to experience significant pressure within the high needs sector due to the increase in number and complexity of children and young people requiring an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP). It says that Cornwall has been particularly impacted by increasing demand for EHCPs due to its low funding, which consistently ranks it as one of the 10 lowest funded authorities in the country.

The report also notes that the government has announced that national funding for mainstream schools will reach £50.9bn in 2026/27 with average per pupil increases of 2.1%. Cornwall is likely to see an increase in the schools block funding of approximately 2.6%.

The report recommends that the schools forum:

• Sets the minimum funding guarantee to a minimum of 0%.
• Considers the options set out for capping school budgets and vote on the preferred methodology.
• Continues to mirror the National Funding Formula factor values subject to any changes agreed in recommendation 2.
• Delegates responsibility for reviewing the central school services budgets to the Service Director for Education and Community Health with the objective of ensuring that a balanced budget is set.
• Continues to pool funds to form a Staff Costs/Supply Cover Maternity Leave fund with a projected 2026/27 fund available to Primary Schools of £137k.
• Continues to pool funds to form a Trade Union Representation fund with a projected value for 2026/27 available to Primary Schools of £29k.
• De-delegates resources to establish a fund for Schools in Financial Difficulty for 2026/27 with a projected value of £135k.
• Continues to de-delegate Free School Meals Eligibility assessments for 2026/27 with a projected fund value of £10k.
• Continues to establish a fund to assist in covering in year Schools Based Redundancy costs incurred by schools in 2026/27.

Other Matters

The agenda also includes:

• Apologies for absence.
• Declarations of interest.
• Minutes of the meeting held on 17 October 2025.
• Membership update.
• Progress against the work plan.
• Proposed dates of future meetings.
• Any other business that the Chairman considers to be of urgency.