The Wandsworth Schools Forum met on Monday 16 October 2023 to discuss updates on early years funding, the Nursery Inclusion Project for All (NIPA), and projections for the Growth Fund. The meeting also covered the national and local funding formula for the financial year 2024-25.

Early Years and Wraparound Childcare Funding Update

Gareth Evans, Head of Schools Finance, and Michael Hallick, Assistant Director for Business and Resources, presented an update on changes to Early Years Funding and Wraparound Childcare. The report detailed the government's plan to incrementally expand funded childcare places, aiming for a full offer of up to 30 hours for children from 9 months old by September 2025. This expansion is projected to cost £4.1 billion nationally by 2027-28. To manage costs, the Department for Education (DfE) has revised staff-to-child ratios for two-year-olds, increasing the ratio from 1:4 to 1:5. Additionally, a supplementary grant of £204 million is being distributed to local authorities to increase hourly rates for early years providers. For Wandsworth, this means significant increases in funding rates for two-year-old provision, with a 41% rise from April to August 2023 and a further increase from September 2023 to March 2024. The report also outlined the government's intention to invest £289 million over two academic years from September 2024 to bolster wraparound care for primary school-aged children, though specific details of this programme are still in development.

Nursery Inclusion Project for All (NIPA) Update

Andy Fish, Inclusion Service Manager, provided an update on the Nursery Inclusion Project for All (NIPA) following its first year of expansion. The project aims to provide a child-centred approach, offering targeted and specialist interventions in partnership with early years settings, families, and children. The expansion has seen NIPA reach 107 children across 18 settings by the summer term 2023, a significant increase from previous years. The report highlighted key successes, including 88% of children supported by NIPA continuing to make progress without requiring statutory assessment through an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Needs assessment. Furthermore, 96% of children involved in the project remained in their current provision or transitioned to mainstream reception, with only 4% moving to special school or resource base provision. The project has also seen positive impacts on children's language and communication skills, with 86% achieving or partially achieving their targets set by Speech and Language Advisors. Early Talk Boost training has been delivered to 16 of the 18 provisions, with 29 children receiving targeted support. The project has also incorporated Live Karma yoga sessions and Occupational Therapy support, reporting improvements in children's sensory awareness, regulation, and participation. The report indicated a 25% reduction in EHC assessment requests from NIPA settings in 2022-23 compared to the previous two academic years, suggesting a broader positive impact on the universal offer within schools. The funding for NIPA in the 2023-24 financial year is forecast at £361,343 for commissioned services.

FY 2023-24 Growth Fund Update

Gareth Evans and Michael Hallick presented an update on the Growth Fund projections for the financial year 2023-24. The Growth Fund, funded from the Schools Block of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), supports new and growing schools, as well as late arrivals with English as an additional language. The report requested agreement from the Forum to allocate £38,544 from the FY 2023-24 Growth Fund to Smallwood Primary School. This allocation is to support a bulge class in the Reception year following an unexpected increase in admission numbers. The report detailed the criteria for this allocation, which would result in a payment of £38,544 for the period September 2023 to March 2024. The overall Growth Fund forecast for FY 2023-24, including this allocation, was projected to be £405,838.

FY 2024-25 National and Local Funding Formula Update

Gareth Evans and Michael Hallick provided an update on the national funding environment for FY 2024-25. The Department for Education (DfE) has published provisional allocations for the Schools, High Needs, and Central Schools Services blocks of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), showing an overall increase of 2.9% nationally and 2.2% in London. The report detailed the key elements of the National Funding Formula (NFF) for 2024-25, including increased per-pupil funding rates and adjustments to various factors. For the first time, Wandsworth has been mandated to align its Local Funding Formula (LFF) more closely with the NFF, requiring factor rates to move 10% closer to the NFF each year. The paper presented two scenarios for distributing schools block funding: Scenario 1, which keeps the LFF as similar as possible to the previous year by moving factor rates the minimum amount towards the NFF, and Scenario 2, which moves directly to match the NFF. Analysis indicated that Scenario 2 would shift funding from primary to secondary schools within Wandsworth. The report included detailed tables showing the projected changes in funding for individual schools under both scenarios.

Forward Plan & Future Schools Forum Meeting Dates

The Schools Forum was presented with a proposed agenda for future meetings, covering core themes such as DSG outturn projections, Local Funding Formula updates, Central Schools Services Block proposals, de-delegation of services, and Early Years budgets. The proposed schedule included meetings in December 2023, January 2024, and March 2024, with specific items planned for each. The Forum was asked to consider if the proposed agenda covered all expected items and to suggest any additional topics.