Agenda item

(Report by Mr R Gough, Cabinet Member for Education and Health Reform and Mr P Leeson, Corporate Director for Education, Learning and Skills)

(Mr K Abbott, Finance Business Partner, Director School Resources was present for this item)

1.               The Director of School Resources, Mr Abbott, introduced the report and highlighted the following:

·       This was the first quarterly full monitoring budget report for 2013/14 that had been reported to the Cabinet on 16 September 2013.  The monitoring in the report reflected the pre-election format as the Cabinet Member for Finance and Procurement had decided that we would continue to report in that format for the remainder of the financial year and reflect the portfolio changes as part of the structure of the 2014/15 budget.

·       Schools were receiving support from officers from Finance and the Schools Improvement Team with their three year budget plans for 2014/15 and 2015/16 to avoid potential deficits and resolve any issues early.

·       Although the Education, Learning and Skills Directorate was forecasting a £800k underspend for the current year in the revenue budget, there were significant pressures on budgets that were funded from the Dedicated Schools Grant, in particular the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Independent/Non-Maintained Provision and Redundancy (Schools).  The longer term solutions to this lay in the SEND Strategy and the completion of the Special Schools Review.  In the meantime discussions may need to be had with schools about rebalancing of the position of what was delegated and non delegated to find a way of funding those pressures until more long term solutions were found.

·       Mr Leeson advised that the SEND Strategy was due to be published.  The Strategy sets out clear proposals to expand the provision in Kent so that there was less need to have more expensive out of county provision.

2.               Mr Abbott and Mr Leeson responded to comments and questions by Members which included the following:

a)         A request was made for a Budget Task and Finish Group to allow Members time to discuss potential budget savings.  The Chairman agreed to speak with the Leader to seek permission.

b)         Requests were made for details of what expenditure was discretionary and what was statutory; details on the Dedicated Schools Grant; and the role of the Schools Funding Forum.  Mr Leeson advised that there was a review on the non-spending parts of the DSG at the request of the Schools Funding Forum and it agreed the number of areas that would be reviewed.  The outcome of that review would be considered by the Schools Funding Forum in December.  Mr Leeson agreed to provide details on the role of the DSG; the Schools Funding Forum and the outcome of the review at the next meeting of this Cabinet Committee.

c)          Concerns were raised regarding  schools planned maintenance and those schools that were not in category A (i.e. in need of urgent repair) could over time go into category A if their repairs were not met in time.   Mr Abbott agreed to produce information on the finance of schools maintenance and circulate to the Cabinet Committee.

d)         Mr Abbott confirmed that all of the figures excluded academies within the report.  He advised that if an academy got into financial difficulty, it was unclear what would happen but the responsibility rests firmly with the Trust for the academy in the first instance and could mean intervention/support from the Education Funding Agency (EFA) and the DfE would also have a role to play.

e)         A request was made for acronyms to be in full at least once in any report.

3.               RESOLVED that:-

a)         the responses to comments and questions by Members be noted;

b)         the Chairman seeks permission for a Budget Task and Finish Group from the Leader of the Council;

c)          this Cabinet Committee be provided with details on the role of the Dedicated Schools Grant; the Schools Funding Forum and the outcome of its review at the next meeting;

d)         this Cabinet Committee be provided with information on the schools maintenance budget; and

e)         the revenue and capital forecast variances in the budget for 2013/14 for the Education, Learning and Skills Directorate based on the first quarter’s full monitoring that was considered by Cabinet on 16 September 2013 be noted.