Purpose

Dedicated School Grant (DSG) is
a ring-fenced grant of which the Schools Block element is used to
fund individual school’s budgets for both Croydon maintained
schools and academies.  This paper is to
inform cabinet about how the budget was set and to seek cabinet
approval before sending the final completed DfE Authority Proforma
Tool (APT), which is a model used in setting the school's budget,
to the DfE.

Content

The Executive Mayor and Cabinet
RESOLVED;
 
2.1 To approve the statutory,
spend of £341.5m (£342.7m less £1.2m referenced
in 2.4 below) of Schools Block DSG funding for the period
2025/26;
 
2.2 to approve the provisional
funding formula factors for Croydon mainstream schools (as shown in
Appendices C and D) for the financial year 2025/26 in line with the
recommendations voted by Schools Forum on 2 December 2024;
 
2.3 To note the extract of the
Schools Forum minute (relating to schools formula factors) and how voting decisions
has informed the formula factors shown in Appendices C and
D.
 
2.4 to support the Schools
Forum approval and the transfer of £1.2m from the
school’s block to the High Needs block as part of DSG Deficit
Management Plan;
 
2.5 to note the factors values
reported in appendices C and D. Appendix D provides detail of which
factors need to be voted on and those not requiring further vote by
the Schools Forum. The decisions made illustrate how the Schools
Forum evaluated the three main DfE options for each factor, before
selecting the final factor which forms the bases underlying the
draft budget for 2025/26.