The Nottingham City Council Schools Forum met on 7 October 2025 to discuss school financing, early years education, and budget monitoring. The forum noted resignations and appointments to its membership, and received updates on the Scheme for Financing Schools, Early Years provision, and Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) revenue monitoring. Members also agreed to consider holding one meeting per year in person at Loxley House, rather than holding all meetings remotely.

Dedicated Schools Grant Revenue Monitoring

The Schools Forum received an update on the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) Revenue Budget Monitoring position. The DSG is a ring-fenced grant used to fund education and enable access to education within Nottingham City, split into four key areas or blocks: Schools Block, Early Years Block, Central Schools Services Block, and the High Needs Block.

The forum noted the DSG Revenue Monitoring position, the forecasted DSG position, future consultations and disapplication request for School Block, and current and forecasted schools revenue balances.

As of July 2025, the 2025/26 DSG positions by block were:

Early Years Budget Monitoring

The Early Years budget is currently spending in line with its budget.

Schools Block Budget Monitoring

Schools' budgets are projected to spend to budget. The contingency funding which has been built into the Growth fund for 2025/26 is unlikely to be required now that the cohort for September 2025 has been admitted. Any underspends remaining at the end of the 2025/26 financial year will form part of the overall DSG reserves.

The schools annual funding consultation will take place in the Autumn term and will consider the de-delegated items such as; Trade Union duty cover, Health and Safety and School Improvement, the setting of the MFG rate and the continuing disapplication for BSF premises and other items pertinent to schools funding.

The Annual consultation on the scheme for financing schools will be distributed alongside the funding consultation to take place in the Autumn term.

The overall Schools outturn revenue balance as at 31st March 2025 was £5.74m, the current forecast is £4.69m. Four schools are currently returning a deficit position; it is anticipated a further two schools will return a deficit balance by the end of the financial year.

Central Schools Services Monitoring

The Central Schools Services Block (CSSB) allocation for 2025/26 is projected to spend to budget. The budget within this block fund both maintained schools and academies. The details of the budgets within the CSSB will be consulted on as part of the overall Schools Funding Consultation.

High Needs Monitoring

The table below shows the updated High Needs Block outturn position for 2024/25 and forecasted reserve balances for 2025/26 to 2029/30.

The reserve assumptions exclude any potential DSG Management Plan mitigations. Finance is working with the service to understand the financial impact of the current proposals.

Early Years Update

The Schools Forum received an Early Years Update from the Early Years Team, updating members on progress over the summer term 2025 and the proposed direction of travel for the autumn term 2025 and spring term 2026.

The Early Years Team supports all primary schools, one maintained Nursery School, independent schools, out of school provision and over 290 Private, Voluntary and Independent (PVI) Early Years Providers, including childminders, across Nottingham City, focusing on children aged 0-5 years.

Over the 2024/25 academic year, the Early Years Team delivered 24 free Agreement Trialling sessions to 283 practitioners representing 79 different settings (61 Schools and 18 PVI Settings) from 11 different school trusts, nursery chains, maintained schools and independent nurseries. 97% of attendees gave overwhelmingly positive feedback.

The Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) data continued an upward trajectory with 65.1% of children achieving a good level of development (GLD) by the end of the Foundation Stage in Summer 2025. This is a 1.5% increase on 2024 data and at 3.2% below national data, this represents the lowest gap with national achievement levels in over 10 years.

The priorities for the autumn term 2025 and spring term 2026 include:

• The formation of a new Early Years Schools Forum Sub-Group, which will act as a consultation group made up of representatives from schools, academies and early years providers from the PVI Sector, and supported by Strategic Finance colleagues.
• The Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life strategy and the associated targets for future GLD level.
• DSG Allocation for 2026/27.

The Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life strategy encompasses targets around better support for families, more accessible early education and childcare and improving quality in early years, including reception. Two significant targets within the strategy are for 75% of children nationally to be reaching a good level of development (GLD) by the end of reception and to reduce the gap between the GLD of children eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) and non-FSM eligible children.

Scheme for Financing Schools

The Forum was updated on the latest revisions to The Scheme for Financing Schools. The scheme outlines the financial relationship between the Local Authority (LA) and maintained schools, and is updated annually by the Department for Education (DfE). Local Authorities are required to consult with all of their maintained schools on any local changes and note any directed revisions from the DfE.

The draft scheme will be sent to all maintained schools for consultation during the Autumn term, and the results of the consultation will be brought to the Schools Forum in December. There are no Directed Revisions from the DfE for 2025. The one-year budget plan submission date remains 1 May, but the three-year budget plan submission is now due by 23 June, where previously it was due by 15 June.

Membership

The Forum noted the resignations of Andy Gilbert (Secondary Academies), Meeta Dave (Primary Academies), and Debbie Simon (Early Years PVI). The Forum approved the appointment of Natasha Kelly (Head Teacher, Rise Park Primary) as a Primary Maintained representative. The Forum currently has the following representative vacancies: Primary Academies x2, Secondary Academies x1, and Early Years PVI x1.

Other Matters

The Forum agreed to consider or discuss at the first meeting of the academic year, in October 2025, whether there was merit in holding one meeting per year face-to-face, rather than all meetings being remote.

The Forum requested that a report, including an audit of Trade Union dedelegation, duties, work undertaken and time-off during the 2024-25 academic year, be submitted to the October 2025 meeting.

The Forum agreed the minutes of the last meeting held on 29 April 2025 as a correct record.