Agenda item

The report was introduced by the Executive Director for Children’s Services, and the Chief Executive of BELS. They highlighted the main points in the report, including that grant funding had been given to maintained nursery schools taking account of the fact that they do not quality for DfE Covid funding to schools or for the rate relief available to private, voluntary and independent early years providers. The report asked the committee to approve the funding formula for schools which is based on the national funding formula, details of which were in the report.

The Committee had the opportunity to question officers and discuss the report. Councillor Coakley Webb moved that the following recommendations should be added to the report;

That the Committee;

6.1 Note the additional funding of £15K for each maintained nursery school, but that this does not cover all the Covid costs and income losses incurred by the schools.

6.2 Note that the maintained nursery schools are still projecting a budget deficit in April 2021, which they cannot cover.

6.3 Agrees to fund whatever budget shortfall the nurseries have and cannot fund themselves at the end of this financial year.

6.4 Requests that P&R Committee reviews the detail of the financial settlement for nurseries once confirmed by Government, and considers meeting any shortfall Barnet's maintained nurseries may have following that announcement.

The additional recommendations were discussed in detail. Following debate Councillor Coakley Webb withdrew recommendation 6.3, on the basis of officers querying whether the Committee could lawfully agree this. The Executive Director for Children’s Services suggested that recommendation 6.4 should refer to the Children, Education and Safeguarding Committee, rather than the Policy and Resources Committee and confirmed that it should relate to ‘maintained nursery schools’. The recommendation was updated accordingly.

Following discussion of the report and proposed additional recommendations, Councillor Coakley Webb MOVED a motion that the Committee agree the additional recommendations as follows:

That the Committee;

6.1 Note the additional funding of £15K for each maintained nursery school, but that this does not cover all the Covid costs and income losses incurred by the schools.

6.2 Note that the maintained nursery schools are still projecting a budget deficit in April 2021, which they cannot cover.

6.4 Requests that the Children, Education and Safeguarding Committee reviews the detail of the financial settlement for maintained nursery schools once confirmed by Government, and considers meeting any shortfall Barnet's maintained nursery schools may have following that announcement.

Votes were recorded as follows:

The motion was therefore LOST.

RESOLVED –

That the Children, Education and Safeguarding Committee:

1. Note the annual report on school funding in Barnet.

2. Approve the formula funding to be used in the Authority Proforma Tool (which specifies the authority’s funding formula for schools) on the basis of paragraphs 1.27 to 1.36, which includes a Minimum Funding Guarantee of +2.0% and means that every primary and secondary school will receive an increase in funding per pupil of at least this percentage in 2021/22, (through the pupil-led element of the schools funding formula), while any schools gaining from the introduction of the National Funding Formula will not have their gains capped.

3. Authorises the Executive Director, Children’s Services to approve the final Authority Proforma Tool for submission to the DfE.

4. Note that the overall Schools Budget will be considered by the Policy and Resources Committee at its next meeting on 8th February 2021 for onward submission to full council as part of the budget setting process.

5. Recommends to Council that any changes to the Schools Budget reasonably required as a result of the final 2021/22 Dedicated Schools Grant and Post-16 settlement are delegated for decision to the Executive Director, Children’s Services in consultation with the Director of Finance.