Havering Schools Funding Forum met to discuss school funding for the coming year. The forum members agreed to allocate funding for early years, noted the year end position on the Dedicated Schools Grant, and reviewed the budget submission for 2025-26. The forum also agreed to resume the High Needs Task and Finish Group to review high needs funding.

Dedicated Schools Grant Year End Balance

The Schools Funding Forum reviewed the year end position on expenditure from the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) in 2024-25. The DSG is the primary source of funding for maintained schools and academies¹. The report noted that the carry forward balance from centrally retained DSG from 2024-25 into 2025-26 is a deficit of £34.722m, an in-year increase of £19.4m. The report stated that this is the sixth year that the combined total of all year end balances of activities funded by the DSG has been in deficit, due to High Needs costs rising faster than funding.

The forum agreed to the following allocation of funding in financial year 2025-26:

• £1.744m from the Early Years block, with £756,000 allocated to early years providers as a supplementary hourly rate for all entitlements for the Summer term claims, £221,000 retained for the Special Educational Needs Inclusion Fund (SENIF) for financial year 2025-26, and £154,000 retained for new responsibilities due to Department for Education (DfE) changes.
• £226,000 from the Schools Block to be retained for growth to fund new Special School start-up costs.
• £46,000 from De-delegation to be carried forward for re-organisation of arrangements for Trade Union Facility Time (TUFT) as part of the COSWP review[^2]. [^2]: The report states that this is composed of: cumulative balance from previous year (£26k), in-year de-delegation (£2k) and academy buyback (£18k).

LA Maintained Schools' Balances 2024-25

The Schools Funding Forum reviewed a report on the LA maintained schools' balances carried forward from 2024-25 into 2025-26. The report noted that the total balances carried forward for the 37 primary and one special school that were LA maintained at the end of financial year 2024-25 was a deficit of £0.5m, which is -0.4% of income. This compares to a surplus of £1.8m in 2023-24, which was 1.5% of income.

The report also noted that 15 schools are in deficit, with 10 of those being above 10%. The local authority will be in discussion with both LA maintained schools with balances above 10% and also those that are unable to set a balanced budget in 2025-26. Those schools with a deficit will have a Deficit Recovery Plan in place, and a licensed deficit will be issued to support those affected schools to overcome the adverse financial position over an agreed term.

Section 251 Budget Submission 2025-26

The Schools Funding Forum reviewed the Section 251 budget statement for financial year 2025-26. Local authorities are required under Section 251 of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 to prepare and submit an education and children and young people's services budget statement to the Department for Education by 30th April each year.

The statement provides a clear picture of the LA's planned spending on its schools budget, de-delegated items, high needs budget, early years budget, and central provision funded both from the Dedicated Schools Grant and from the Council's general fund for education and children and young people's services.

The Section 251 budgets statements submitted by Havering for 2025-26 are currently undergoing the usual DfE assurance checks.

Early Years Funding Update

The Schools Funding Forum reviewed a report outlining the proposed changes in the entitlement to funded Early Years provision, the Early Years Expansion Grant and the DfE change to the LA data collection for the Early Years Block funding from 2026-27.

The report noted that from 1st April 2025, the Early Years entitlement was expanded to support those under two year old children (between the ages of 9 months to two years of age) and two year old children of working families to be able to participate in a nursery provision with up to 15 hours. From 1st September 2025, the roll-out will expand for children between the ages of 9 months to four years of age, of working parents being able to participate for 30 hours of funding at a nursery provision.

The report also noted that the Early Years Expansion Grant aims to support local authorities in expanding the early years entitlements for under twos and two year olds, ensuring sufficient childcare places are available as per the Department for Education (DfE) guidelines. Havering has been allocated a total of £416,868 for this purpose, which will be distributed equally among all eligible providers who meet the criteria.

The report also noted that the DfE has notified LAs of a change of methodology for the data collection that affects LA funding levels for the Early Years Block. This affects the Early Years census, whereby the DfE will move from an annual to a termly data collection from the 2026-27 financial year. From the 2026-27 financial year, all early years entitlements, both new and established, will be funded using termly child-level data. This change is intended to better align funding with actual delivery patterns across the year and improve the precision of local authority allocations.

High Needs Funding 2025-26

The Schools Funding Forum reviewed a report detailing the High Needs funding arrangements and rates for schools for 2025-26 and High Needs Task and Finish group.

Following consultation with schools, for 2025-26 £1.291m was transferred from the Schools Block to High Needs in order to ensure that increased funding rates introduced in 2024-25 could be maintained.

The report noted that funding for Education Health Care Plans (EHCPs) for 2025-26 will be transitioning to standardised bands of different levels of intervention and support, which will be mapped using the previous hours index to the applicable band level. Primary and Secondary Schools are required to fund the first £6,000 of additional support from their budget. For 2025-26 additional funding will be allocated from the High Needs Block for hours above 7.7 at a rate of £20.00 per hour, which is then mapped to the new band system that will be in place for funding children with EHCPs.

The report also detailed the funding for Specialist Units and Resource Provisions in Primary and Secondary Schools, and for Special School funding.

The forum agreed for the resumption of the High Needs Task and Finish Group, and specialist sub-groups, to review current year and future year arrangements for High Needs funding levels and support. The report stated that:

In light of ongoing cost pressures and the current deficit position, it is recommended that the Task and Finish Group remains in place on an indefinite basis. Supported by specialist subgroups, the group will continue to monitor financial developments, assess the impact on schools, and provide recommendations to ensure funding arrangements remain fair, transparent, and responsive to need.