Decision details

Proposed Decision:

To approve changes to the Kent County Council local funding formula for schools and early years providers that is used to calculate school budgets and early years rates from 1 April 2024. 

Delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Children, Young People and Education to make any necessary changes to the Local Funding Formula rates once final affordability is known.

Reason for the decision:

In response to the Government confirming the additional funding for schools, Kent County Council is set to receive approximately £25m in 2024-25 to increases in funding rates for primary and secondary school budgets. The Government has also indicated a further £10m for High Needs in 2024-25. This decision will confirm how this additional funding will be distributed to schools in line with Government guidelines. 

Background:

The Government has confirmed the Council continues to be responsible for operating a local funding formula for Kent maintained schools (and this formula is also used by the Education and Skills Funding Agency for calculating Kent academy budgets) during 2024-25 and legislation dictates that any changes to that formula is subject to an all school consultation which took place in November 2023 along with seeking views from the Schools Funding Forum. The consultation focuses on how we allocate any additional funding and a request to transfer a further 1.2% from the schools to the high needs block to support SEN Support services in schools (the latter is also subject to Secretary of State approval).

The Council is responsible for setting the funding formula rates for High Needs funded school places including mainstream top-up funding, specialist resource provisions, maintained and academy special schools, post 16 providers.

The Council is also responsible for setting the Early Years Local Funding Formula which is used for setting the rate paid to early years providers for the Free Entitlement Early Years Funding Rate and Free for Two Rate. However this will be subject to a separate key decision for 2024-25 due to the wider changes in Free Entitlement Funding.

Options:

The options considered for setting the primary and secondary school budgets are outlined in the consultation document to schools. Proposed changes to the primary and secondary schools funding formula have been limited to avoid any excessive deviation from the National Funding Formula (NFF) used by Government to allocate school funding to local authorities for distribution to schools. This is in line with previous recommendations from both schools & the Schools Funding Forum who have supported the general principle that “our Local Funding Formula should move towards the NFF, but at the same time continue to utilise local flexibility to address areas of local concern”.

The options for the setting of High Needs funding formula rates will be considered once the Government confirms final allocations.

The decision is linked to the key priority “Levelling up Kent” within the ‘Framing Kent’s Future (2022-26)’

Whilst the decision relates to the distribution of ring-fenced grant, this decision is linked to achieving the overall objectives of ‘Securing Kent’s Future – Budget Recovery Strategy’ whereby proposals will support the financial recovery of the High Needs Block of the Dedicated Schools Grant. 

As Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, I agree to:

1. Transfer 1.2% of the Schools Block (which equates to approximately to £15.2m) into the High Needs Block for 2024-25.

2. In relation to the Kent Local Funding Formula for schools in 2024-25:

i.               Continue with the Falling Roll fund. This will be fully funded from the Department for Education allocation for 2024-25 this equates to approximately £0.5m.

ii.              Set the local Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG) percentage at 0.5% for primary and secondary schools.

iii.             Set the Minimum Per Pupil Funding Level (MPPFL) as per the value in the table below. This is equivalent to 0.9% the National Funding Formula:

iv.            All other factors within the current local funding formula to be set as per the National Funding Formula (NFF) less 1.7%.

v.              Set the SEN Notional Budget calculation using the following National Funding Formula factors: 5% Basic Entitlement, 70% of Ever 6 Free School Meal, Deprivation and Mobility Factors, and 100% Low Prior Attainment Factor, and 43% MPPFL & MFG Factors

3. In relation to Kent’s High Needs Formula Rates:

i.               2% inflationary increase for High Needs Formula budgets including SEN Inclusion Fund, Mainstream top up funding, Specialist Resource Provisions in mainstream schools, Specialist Teaching & Learning Service, Special Schools, Alternative Provision, FE colleges, and Specialist Post 16 Provisions.

ii.              The threshold for the additional mainstream top up funding (also known as SEN Notional Budget top up) will be set based on the size of the school:

·       Primary school (school roll up to 175): 40% schools notional SEN budget.

·       Primary school (school roll between 176 and 315): 45% of schools notional SEN budget.

·       Primary school (school roll over 315): 50% of schools notional SEN budget.

·       Secondary schools: 50% of schools notional SEN budget

4. Delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Children, Young People and Education to make any further necessary changes to funding rates in light of any final affordability issues and further feedback from the Schools Funding Forum.