Forum to consider the report.

Tracey Anne-Nevitt, Business Finance Partner for Schools and Early Years (AfC), introduced the report as an update on the schools funding consultation as well as an update on the recent announcement of early years funding for 2024-25, the de-delegation rates, and the central schools budget.

The schools funding consultation had ended on 1^st December 2023 with 25 schools forwarding responses (42% of schools who received the consultation). Tracey Anne-Nevitt then went through the questions in the consultation and the responses from the schools:

·       The proposal to retain the minimum funding guarantee at 0.5% for mainstream schools was supported by 92% of respondents.

·       The continuation of the capping and scaling in the minimum funding guarantee (MFG) was supported by 64% of respondents.

·       For the sparsity factor, the option with the highest support was Option 1: increase sparsity by 10% increase (the minimum increase to apply). Tracey Anne-Nevitt reminded the Forum that the sparsity was introduced to the formula for the first year (2023-24) with AfC gradually adding to this factor.

·       For the headroom allocation, Option 1 had the highest support (52% support) which would be applying additional funding to the four formula factors which were funded below the NFF (national funding formula) levels.

·       On de-delegation (which only applied to maintained schools), where a table of rates for the proposed rates for 2023-24 was provided to the consultation, including the School Improvement Service being partly de-delegated, 60% of maintained schools supported the de-delegation of school improvement, with one responding with ‘no’ and another 5 (33%) responding with ‘unsure’.

Regarding the low response rates from schools to consultations, Sarah Cottle (Maidenhead Nursery Federation) wondered whether a different approach could improve responses from schools, such as a short Zoom chat.

Louise Dutton responded that a drop-in session through Google Meets was offered, with an invite being sent out to headteachers and school business managers (including academies) but only four of these had joined the drop-in session. Concluding that a drop-in session did not work, Louise Dutton informed that AfC would consider further actions they could do for 2024 in hopes of increasing responses. One option she mentioned was that AfC officers could attend headteacher meetings and present the information to them, possibly before a consultation was sent out, to give them insight on what was coming up.

The Chair agreed that there would likely be improved responses at headteacher meetings, stating that this was important for headteachers as it had significant impact on their school budgets. Louise Dutton added that she once came across a headteacher of an academy who believed that academies were not affected. From this, she highlighted that AfC needed to ensure that the message was being sent out and the right people received it.

Isabel Cooke highlighted that headteachers and school business managers received a high volume of emails, and as a result, they would likely miss important emails, such as consultations. As such, she believed that engaging through headteacher forums would be beneficial.

Continuing with her report, Tracey Anne-Nevitt highlighted the table which detailed the proposed de-delegation rates for 2024-25, adding that this table was brought to Schools Forum annually. She stated that the representatives for maintained schools were required to approve the de-delegation rates to go into the formula funding for the new financial year (2024-25).

Catherine Page, representing a maintained primary school, and the Chair, representing a maintained secondary school, approved the de-delegation rates.

AGREED: To approve the de-delegation rates to go into the formula funding for the financial year 2024-25.

Tracey Anne-Nevitt then moved onto the Central School Services Budgets (Table 3), explaining that this was to give the Forum an update on the budgets for places in independent schools – non-SEN, Admissions Team and servicing Schools Forum. She requested for the Forum to support these areas.

UANIMOUSLY AGREED: To support the Central School Services Budgets.

Tracey Anne-Nevitt then moved onto the Early Years Funding Notification. She explained that at the end of November 2023, the Borough received an update on the outcome of the Early Years Funding consultation which central government carried out with local authorities. They also sent over the Early Years Local Authority Funding Rates (Table 4), which illustrated the RBWM rates per entitlement (Under aged 2, 2-year-olds, and 3- and 4-year-olds) for 2023-24 and 2024-25.

Tracey Anne-Nevitt then discussed the Early Years Block Funding (Table 5), stating that these were illustrative rates based on estimates on the PTEs (part-time equivalent) from the central government.

Tracey Anne-Nevitt then informed that the AfC School Finance Team were working on the next consultation which would be brought to the Forum at the next meeting in January 2024 to showcase the details on the formula proposals. From there, this consultation would be sent out to schools so they could give their feedback on the proposals for April 2024 onwards.

The Forum noted the Early Years Block Funding.

The Chair concluded the meeting by wishing all attendees a Happy Christmas.