The Bromley Council Schools Forum met to discuss the provisional outturn report for 2024/25, proposed changes to the constitution of the Schools Forum, and spending by primary, secondary and special maintained schools in 2024-25. The forum agreed to submit the proposed changes to the constitution to the Children, Education and Families Policy Development and Scrutiny (PDS) Committee for approval.

Constitution of the Schools Forum

The Schools Forum discussed a report on the constitution of the Schools Forum, and agreed to submit the report to the Children, Education and Families PDS Committee in September 2025 for approval. The constitution is regularly reviewed to reflect changes to the makeup of the forum.

The Head of Finance, Children, Education and Families, David Bradshaw, explained that the membership conditions needed to be relaxed to fill vacancies. Proposed changes included:

• Allowing up to two school representatives from a school or academy trust, whereas the previous constitution only allowed one.
• Merging the separate Head and Governor/Trustee positions into one to allow greater flexibility in appointments.
• Removing the Joint Teacher Liaison vacancy, reducing non-school representation from five to four, as the vacancy had existed for several years and it was not a statutory membership role.

It was noted that the wording under Section 4 of the Constitution and Terms of Reference with regard to vacancies would need to be amended to reflect the need to seek representation across the board.

CEF Provisional Outturn Report 2024/25

The Schools Forum received the CEF Provisional Outturn Report 2024/25, which had been presented to the Executive on 21 May 2025. The report highlighted three main areas of concern: continued pressures relating to Special Educational Needs (SEN) transport within Education Core Funding, ongoing financial pressures related to placement costs in Children's Social Care, and increasing pressures in the High Needs area of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG).

Members noted a DSG and a Core Funding overspend, and that for 2025/26 there had been a large amount of growth within the budget. The council were unable to use core funding to address the DSG overspend, which presented ongoing challenges.

In response to a question regarding plans to reduce SEN transport costs, David Bradshaw stated that more in-borough provision would be preferable as this would reduce costs. He added that software to plan routes would be too costly to bring in-house, and that while attempts were being made to reduce costs, the provision of SEN transport was a statutory obligation¹ and most London authorities faced similar challenges.

Concerns were raised regarding the projected increase in the overall DSG deficit, together with projected overspends in DSG and Children's Social Care funding. David Bradshaw acknowledged the concerns and said that although more funds had been allocated to council-funded aspects, issues remained with balancing all areas that required funding due to limited resources and government funding.

Members were informed that the government had advised that they would be looking at the DSG situation as part of their SEND review², with a white paper due in the autumn. It was felt that the system appeared to be 'broken' with funding not available going forward. Councils were allowed to have over-spends and the 'statutory disregard' meant that the DSG deficit could be 'ignored' although it remained in the balance sheets. The 'statutory disregard' was initially due to end in March 2026, but the government announced that this had been pushed back to March 2028.

David Bradshaw said that for some councils, if the financial disregard was not in place and funding for the deficits had to be provided through their own reserves, it could potentially end with bankruptcy. He added that the council was better placed than other local authorities but faced challenging and difficult times.

Regarding the costs of residential placements for young people, David Bradshaw said that Bromley planned to open its own children's homes to try and save money by offering local provision, and that a five-bed residential placement home was due to be opened towards the end of the year, in partnership with other bodies.

In response to a question regarding the Alternative Programmes overspend of £3.816m (as part of the SEN and Inclusion total overspend of £7.851m), David Bradshaw said he would look into this further and provide a breakdown in due course.

Schools Finance Regulations 2025

The Schools Forum were asked to note the report on the Schools Finance Regulations 2025 and note that, subject to council approval on 7 July 2025, the report would be distributed to the maintained schools.

David Bradshaw explained that the report was aimed at the four remaining maintained schools. Bromley's own financial regulations were periodically reviewed and the Schools Finance Regulations were reviewed at the same time. He noted that no substantial changes had been made, but that one of the biggest changes was that Bromley as a local authority currently administered purchase cards for the maintained schools. It was proposed that these schools would be able to make their own arrangements for a credit/purchase card and the Bromley scheme would then be cancelled. This was seen as a positive move away from the somewhat bureaucratic nature of the current scheme to schools having more freedom, as long as they adhered to the required regulations. Another change to be noted was that the council had changed banks from HSBC to Barclays.

Spending by Primary, Secondary and Special Maintained Schools in 2024-25

The Schools Forum were presented with a report on spending by primary, secondary and special maintained schools in 2024/25. The report provided information on all revenue and capital balances held by primary, secondary and special maintained schools as of 31 March 2025, and also provided a comparison to the balances held at the same time in the previous year.

It was a statutory requirement by the Department for Education (DfE) that this annual report be submitted and checked for the remaining maintained schools. The report would be considered at the CEF PDS meeting on 11 September 2025. The revenue balances for maintained primary schools had increased from the previous year (17%). Secondary schools and special schools balances had remained at the same levels (2% and 4% respectively).

Members were informed that the DfE required further analysis to be undertaken in relation to the data provided if set limits/levels for overspends and/or deficits had been exceeded. David Bradshaw confirmed that this did not apply to Bromley and therefore the DfE would not require any further information at this time. Members noted that no particular matters or issues were identified as areas for concern.