Minutes

13      SCHOOLS FUNDING FORMULA AND EARLY YEARS FUNDING FORMULA 2024-25 – The Director: Outcomes, and Director: Children and Families submitted a joint urgent report updating the Cabinet Member regarding the 2024-25 funding allocations for Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) and the amount available for Individual School Budgets (ISB) and Early Years providers, seeking Cabinet Member approval for the proposed Schools Funding Formula for North Lincolnshire mainstream schools, and the proposed Early Years Funding Formula (EYFF) for early years providers.

An urgent decision was required to comply with the deadline set in the Schools and Early years Finance Regulations, to notify mainstream maintained schools of their schools’ budget shares no later than 29 February 2024.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) published operational guides annually to help local authorities and their Schools Forum plan the local implementation of school funding formulas and deliver early years entitlements for the forthcoming year.

On 19 December 2023 the ESFA published the 2024-25 Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) Allocations, based on October 2023 School Census data. The total allocation for North Lincolnshire is £180.511m after recoupment and deductions for National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR) and direct funding of High Needs Places by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). This was an increase of £12.873m from last year. The DSG consists of four funding blocks:

·       Schools Block £136.270m

·       Central Services Schools Block (CSSB) £1.022m

·       Early Years Block (Provisional) £15.754m

·       High Needs Block (Provisional) £27.465m

The schools block funds all mainstream schools and was ring fenced. The Operational guide set out how Individual School Budget (ISB) shares could be calculated.

North Lincolnshire Councils local school funding formula mirrored the schools National Funding Formula (NFF).

Key changes to the schools NFF in 2024 to 2025 were detailed in paragraph 2.5 of the report.

The Early Years Block funded all providers of early education, the statutory duty would extend during 2024 to younger children from nine months of age to four years.

Funding became available for working parents that met an eligibility criteria from April 2024 for two-year-olds and from September 2024 for children over nine months; who became eligible for 15 hours of funded early education for 38 weeks of the year. This was in addition to the disadvantaged funding for two year olds, where their family circumstances made them eligible. To meet the criteria families must have been eligible for free school meals (FSM) or be in receipt of Universal Credit/tax credits and have an annual income of under £16,190 before tax or where a child was looked after by a Local Authority.

Local authorities determined their own local formula that met the requirements of statutory guidance in consultation with schools forum.  Early years’ providers received funding based on participation of individual children each term.

This report set out the final proposals for the North Lincolnshire schools funding formula and the North Lincolnshire Early Years Formula for 2024-25.

Resolved – (a) That the factors detailed in Appendix 1 of the report to calculate the individual schools budget  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.