Issue - meetings

To receive a presentation by Lorraine Butcher

Fintan Bradley gave a presentation on the Funding Formula Working Group which was set up in January 2010. The working group consisted of Council officers and education partners and had been set up to review the current schools funding formula and to bring forward proposals for change that:

• Support the effective and efficient distribution of the Council’s resources

• Are open and transparent and distribute resources equitably between schools

• Support raising standards and achievement particularly in literacy and numeracy and other key skills

• Match the allocation of resources with the responsibility for ensuring outcomes in terms of school progress, attainment and wellbeing

• Support inclusion within mainstream settings wherever possible

• Enable any special educational needs to be met as early as possible and usually without the need for a statement.

The group had been developing models to simplify the local funding formula to see what the effect that each of the models would have on school funding. It had been concluded that each model would affect the same small number of schools by reducing funding.

The Council had recently received a new consultation document from the Department for Education (DFE) which had indicated that for the new financial year, DSG would remain at existing levels. The Government was proposing to put in place a ‘Pupil premium’ in order to target those pupils perceived to being left behind in deprived areas. This premium would be additional to the DSG and would be ring-fenced at a high level, but would give individual schools freedom to use the funds flexibly.

It was not yet clear however, what the total grant made available to Local authorities would be.

RRSOLVED – That the presentation be received and noted.