Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Educational Attainment and School Improvement presented a report on the latest position regarding the Government’s education funding reforms and the proposed allocation of funding to schools for 2018/19.

The Cabinet Member referred to the provisional allocations for 2018/19 across the four funding areas covering the main allocation to schools (Schools block), central costs for core Local Authority education services (Central block), additional costs for SEN pupils (High Needs block) and childcare and pre-school services (Early Years block).  It was noted that the overall allocation for 2018/19 would represent another real-term cut in education funding in the Borough and Members spoke of their dismay at the Government for its failure to provide a properly funded education system that was open to all. 

The Cabinet Member highlighted the continued under-funding by Government of the High Needs block which had resulted in the local Schools’ Forum agreeing once again to reallocate some funding from the larger Schools block to maintain services to the most vulnerable children.  Cabinet Members expressed their support for a lobbying campaign recently discussed at London Councils aimed at securing extra funding from the Government to support the High Needs block.

The Cabinet Member also commented on the significant cuts to the Central block over recent years which impacted on a number of valued services such as the Trewern Outdoor Education Centre and the Community Music Service, and advised that further reports would be presented to Cabinet on the future funding options for those services.

The Schools’ Forum had been consulted on three funding allocation options for 2018/19 and the preferred option was detailed in Appendix A to the report, although it was acknowledged that some adjustments may be necessary as a result of updated census data used by the DfE to determine final allocations. 

The Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Note the latest position on the national Education Funding Reform and the expected implications for Barking and Dagenham as set out in section 2 of the report;

(ii)  Approve the 2018/19 strategy for the Dedicated Schools Budget as set out in section 3 of the report;

(iii)  Agree, in principle, the proposed model for allocating school funding in 2018/19 set out in section 4 and Appendix A of the report; and

(iv)  Delegate authority to the Strategic Director for Service Development and Integration, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Educational Attainment and School Improvement, the Chief Operating Officer and the Schools Forum, to approve the final 2018/19 school funding formula submission to the Education Funding Agency.