Agenda item

Report of the Director of Education and Skills

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Education and Skills which set out the results of the consultation on proposed changes to the Fair Funding Scheme of Delegation ("the Scheme") and sought approval for recommended changes to the Scheme and the Fair Funding Formula.

The report indicated that Under Section 48 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, Local Authorities (LAs) are required to have schemes of delegation which set out the financial controls and arrangements that will operate between schools and the LA. Any proposed revisions to these schemes and/or the Fair Funding Formula must be the subject of consultation and require approval by the Schools Forum.

The DFE introduced its National Funding Formula (NFF) for LAs in 2018-19, whereby allocations for LAs were determined under the NFF approach, but LAs retained control over how they chose to distribute that funding amongst their schools. In Coventry the decision since 2018-19 has been to mirror the NFF allocation for schools as far as possible. This has provided all schools with annual increases at least in line with the maximum per pupil funding increase set out in the NFF.

The Department for Education (DFE) published the "Schools Operational Guide: 2024 to 2025" which sets out the school revenue funding arrangements for 2024-25. There have not been any significant changes required to the operation of the local school funding formula for 2024-25 compared to 2023-24.

The Coventry Fair Funding Consultation document was circulated on the 8th November 2023 to Head Teachers including Academy Head Teachers/Principals, Chairs of Governing Bodies, relevant Councillors, Trade Unions, Diocesan authorities, the Coventry Governors Association, members of the Schools Forum and Early Years Free Entitlement providers in the private, voluntary and Independent (PVI) sectors. The consultation period ended after 3 weeks on 29th November 2023.

Stakeholder groups were briefed throughout the consultation period. These included Primary Finance representative head teachers and the Schools Forum. The consultation document also seeks to act as an information document to school stakeholders regarding anticipated local budget pressures.

The recommended changes to the Fair Funding Formula and Fair Funding Scheme of Delegation were summarised in Section 2 of the report. The results of the consultation were set out in Appendix 1 to the report - Fair Funding Consultation 2024-25: Summary of Responses, Appendix 2 to the report gave details of the De-delegation Levels Approved for 2023-24, and Appendix 3 to the report provided the Fair Funding Consultation document for 2024-25.

RESOLVED that Cabinet:

(1)  Approves the recommended changes to the Fair Funding Formula and Fair Funding Scheme of Delegation, which are summarised in Section 2 of the report.

(2)  Delegates authority to the Director of Education and Skills, following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, to make any necessary amendments to the final detail of these recommended changes, in order to comply with the School Finance (England) Regulations once full detail of the schools funding settlement has been published by the Department for Education for 2024/25. Any changes will be made following discussion with the Schools Forum as appropriate.