Purpose

Governing Boards are required to set balanced
budgets each year. In circumstances where they are not able to do
so, the LA may licence their deficit. There are 19 schools in
2023-24 which are expected to be £8.4m deficit in aggregate,
we have also received DfE grant of £0.9m for schools in
financial difficulty, so we are seeking a total licenced deficit of
£7.5m. Cabinet Member approval is part of a systematic
approach to improve scrutiny and accountability on financial
management for maintained schools.

Decision

To grant the nineteen deficit schools (as
detailed in Appendices 1 and 2) licenced deficits totalling
£7.392m, noting the significant risk of depleting reserves
for Financial Year 2023/24 (1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024).