Purpose

Proposed Decision:
 
To approve changes to the Kent
County Council local funding formula for schools and early years
providers that is used to calculate school budgets and early years
rates from 1 April 2025. 
 
To approve the percentage
uplift to Special Educational Need payments made by the Local
Authority to State-Funded Schools and Post 16 providers (FE
Colleges & Specialist Post 16 Providers) from 1 April
2025.
 
Delegate authority to the
Corporate Director of Children, Young People and Education to make
any necessary changes to the Local Funding Formula rates once final
affordability is known.
 
Delegate authority to the
Corporate Director of Children, Young People and Education, in
consultation with the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, to
agree the distribution method for new school specific education
grants during 2025-26 provided by the Department of Education, in
line with grant conditions.  
 
Reason for the
decision:

In response to the
Government confirming the additional funding for schools, Kent
County Council is set to receive approximately £35m (2.6%) in
2025-26 to increases funding rates for primary and secondary school
budgets. The Government has also indicated a further £21.5m
(7%) for High Needs in 2025-26. Funding for the Early Years Free
Entitlement has also been announced with funding from Government
due to increase between 2.7% and 4.3% (dependent on age range).
This decision will confirm how this additional funding will be
distributed to schools and early years in line with Government
guidelines. In addition, during the year, the Department of
Education can sometimes announce additional grants that must be
paid directly to schools (for example: contributions towards
teachers’ pay award, pension increases or national insurance
changes) to ensure these grants are paid to schools in a timely
manner, the proposal extends the delegation to distribute these
specific grants during the year.
The final budget
approach will be confirmed at the point the decision is
taken.

 
Background:

The Government has
confirmed the Council continues to be responsible for operating a
local funding formula for Kent maintained schools (and this formula
is also used by the Education and Skills Funding Agency for
calculating Kent academy budgets) during 2025-26 and legislation
dictates that any changes to that formula is subject to an all
school consultation which took place in December 2024 along with
seeking views from the Schools Funding Forum. The consultation
focuses on how we allocate any additional funding and a request to
continue to transfer 1.2% from the schools to the high needs block
to support SEN Support services in schools (the latter is also
subject to Secretary of State approval).

 
·     
The Council is responsible for setting the funding
formula rates for High Needs funded school places including
mainstream top-up funding, specialist resource provisions,
maintained and academy special schools, post 16 providers.
Proposals for the future SEN funding model for state-funded schools
is being considered separately. These proposals are limited to the
recommended percentage uplift to be applied to existing formulas
for 2025-26.
 
·     
 The Council is also
responsible for setting the Early Years Local Funding Formula which
is used for setting the rates paid to early years providers for the
Free Entitlement offer for children aged between 9 months and 4
years attending nurseries or childminders, for up to 30 hours of
free childcare a week (dependent on eligibility).
 
Options (other options
considered but discarded):
School Budgets: The options
considered for setting the primary and secondary school budgets are
outlined in the consultation document to schools and the preferred
option will be set out at the point of decision. However, the
option to deviate excessively from the National Funding Formula
(NFF) used by Government to allocate school funding to local
authorities for distribution to primary and secondary schools was
discarded at an earlier stage.This is
in line with previous recommendations from both schools & the
Schools Funding Forum who have supported the general principle that
“our Local Funding Formula should move towards the NFF, but
at the same time continue to utilise local flexibility to address
areas of local concern”.
 

SEN Payments for
state-funded schools and post 16 providers (Colleges &
Specialist Post 16 Providers): Wider proposals for changes to the
Special Education Needs Funding Model for state-funded schools were
discarded at an early stage as proposed changes are being
considered separately to this decision. 
Therefore this decision is being limited to whether to apply a
percentage uplift to SEN payments for state-funded schools and post
16 providers (Colleges & Specialist Post 16 Providers) in
2025-26.

 

Early Years Payments:
The option to change the basis of the 
funding rates were discarded at an early stage with the decision
being limited to whether to apply a percentage uplift to current
rates.

 
Last year the Government
announced a range of measures to support early education and help
for parents with childcare so they can return to work more easily.
This resulted in a number of changes to the sector including an
expansion of the free entitlement offer from a universal/targeted
offer for 3 & 4 year olds (& some eligible 2 year olds) to
include free childcare up to 30 hours to working parents with
children aged over 9 months. The Council implemented a number of
new rates in response to this change and reviewed the current 3
& 4 year old formula relating to deprivation. Therefore,
options to change the basis of the funding rates further were
discarded, to provide stability to the sector, instead opting to
consider a standard percentage uplift in line with Government
funding announcements. 
 
Links to Framing Kents Future
and Securing Kent’s Future:
·     
The decision is linked to the key priority
“Levelling up Kent” within the ‘Framing
Kent’s Future (2022-26)’
 
·     
Whilst the decision relates to the distribution of
ring-fenced grant, this decision is linked to achieving the overall
objectives of ‘Securing Kent’s Future – Budget
Recovery Strategy’ whereby proposals will support the
financial recovery of the High Needs Block of the Dedicated Schools
Grant. 
 

Decision

As Cabinet Member for Education and
Skills,  I agree to:
 
·      
approve changes to the Kent County Council local funding formula
for schools and early years providers that is used to calculate
school budgets and early years rates from 1 April 2025 as set out
below:
 

Transfer 1.2% of the
Schools Block (equates to approximately £16.5m) into the High
Needs Block for 2025-25

 

In relation to the
Kent Local Funding Formula for primary & secondary schools in
2025-26:

i.              
Set the local Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG) percentage at 0.0%
for primary & secondary schools
 
ii.             
Increase the following factor values as set out in the table below
to reflect the incorporation of grants (which were previously
received separately) including the full year effect of the Core
Schools Budget Grant:

Factor Value
Increase

24-25 Grants*

Full Year Effect
Core Schools Budget Grant for
25-26

Basic Entitlement:
Primary
Secondary Key Stage
4
Secondary Key Stage
5

 
£213
£300
£339

 
£51
£71
£80

Free School Meals Ever
6
Primary
Secondary

 
£188
£277

 
£45
£68

Lump Sum

£8,006

£1.915

Minimum Per Pupil Funding
Level
Primary
Secondary

 
£257
£350

 
£62
£83

*Teachers Pay Grant; Teachers
Pension Employers Contribution Grant; Core Schools Budget
Grant
 
iii.            
Set the Minimum Per Pupil Funding Level (MPPFL) as per the values
in the table below. This is equivalent to 99.1% of the National
Funding Formula Rate

MPPFL Factor Value

2025-26 Local Rate
£s

Primary

£4,910.41

Secondary Key Stage
4

£6,163.55

Secondary Key Stage
5

£6,741.71

 
iv.           
All other factors within the current local funding formula to
increase by approximately 0.2% (after grant funding has been
added).
 

In relation to the
Kent Early Years Local Funding Formula for 2025-26:

i.              
the base rates for the Free Entitlement offer will be set as per
the values in the table below:

Free Entitlement Base
Rate

2025-26 Rate £ per
eligible hour

Over 9 months to 2
years

£10.76

2 years

£7.84

3- & 4-year olds

£5.34

 
ii.             
Increase the 3- and 4-year olds quality supplement by £0.14
per hour to £1.34 per hour for settings with a nominated
leader with a qualified teacher status and employed on & paid
under the Statutory Teachers’ Terms &
Conditions.
 
iii.            
reduce the proportion of the Early Years Block retained by the
Council to fund services for early years from a maximum of 5% to 4%
in line with government guidance (total estimated budget of
£9.3m)
 
iv.           
Remove the contingency for variations in demand for payments for
children over 9 months and under 2 years.
 
v.             
Early Years Pupil Premium and Disability Access Fund to be set in
line with nationally prescribed rates.
 

approve a minimum 1%
inflationary uplift to Special Educational Need payments made by
the Local Authority to State-Funded Schools (SEN Inclusion Fund,
Specialist Resource Provisions, Special Schools, Alternative
Provision) and Post 16 providers (FE Colleges & Specialist Post
16 Providers) from 1 April 2025.

 
·      
Delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Children, Young
People and Education, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for
Education, to make any necessary changes to the Local Funding
Formula rates once final affordability is known and the outcome of
Secretary of State approval.
 
·      
Delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Children, Young
People and Education, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for
Education and Skills, to agree the distribution method for school
specific education grants during 2025-26 provided by the Department
of Education, in line with grant conditions.