Issue - meetings

To consider and comment on the NFF proposals in order to inform the decision of the Executive.

1.    Roger Gough (Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Education) introduced the report which provided Members with an update on the implications of introducing a National Funding Formula for Kent schools and Kent County Council. He also provided an update on the consultation held with all Kent schools regarding a number of proposals to change KCC’s local funding formula from 1 April 2018.

2.    Simon Pleace (Finance Business Partner for Children, Young People and Education) said that the Secretary of State had announced an additional investment of £1.3 billion into schools budgets nationally, at the same time as moving to a National Funding Formula. The additional investment represented an increase of approximately 3% over the next two years and Kent was likely to receive an increase of approximately 7%. He said that the introduction of a National Funding Formula would benefit Kent greatly and this was welcomed. He referred to the report in further detail and provided an overall summary of the impact that the introduction of a National Funding Formula would have on Kent County Council. Kent received £839.4 million for the current financial year which funded all school budgets, both maintained schools and academies. This block of funding would increase by £27.6 million in 2018-2019 and would then increase by a further £22.3 million in 2019-2020. This meant that there would be an additional £50 million to allocate over the next 2 financial years, which was significantly more than Kent currently had to allocate. He said that consultation had taken place to decide how best to allocate the additional money to schools in Kent. He said that Kent would receive an additional £12.2 million once the National Funding Formula had been implemented. Mr Pleace was not able to confirm when the additional funding of £12.2 million would be available to Kent. He said that the methodology for calculating the funding had been by applying the National Funding Formula factors and rates; he referred to Appendix 1 in the report and highlighted the potential issues that the introduction of the National Funding Formula could bring.

a)    In response to a question, Simon Pleace discussed the Looked After Children (LAC) factor and its interaction with Pupil Premium Plus. He said that the money that each school spent on the Pupil Premium Plus had to be reported. He said that in the local funding formula, £525 was allocated per pupil and how that was spent as a school was at the school’s discretion. He said that 50% of the Pupil Premium Plus allocation went directly to the school on a per capita based on eligible pupils, the other part was held back and allocated out based on an application basis in regards to what the school was doing with the money. He discussed the rate that had been set by Government for the National Funding Formula and said that it was a set rate; he said that schools and funding forums thought that the rate should be lowered.

b)    In  ...  view the full minutes text for item 62