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 2024. 
 
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.
 
 

Reason for the decision:
In
response to the Government confirming the additional funding for
schools, Kent County Council is set to receive approximately
£25m in 2024-25 to increases in funding rates for primary and
secondary school budgets. The Government has also indicated a
further £10m for High Needs in 2024-25. This decision will
confirm how this additional funding will be distributed to schools
in line with Government guidelines. 
 

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 2024-25 and
legislation dictates that any changes to that formula is subject to
an all school consultation which took
place in November 2023 along with seeking views from the Schools
Funding Forum. The consultation focuses on how we allocate any
additional funding and a request to transfer a further 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.

 
The
Council is also responsible for setting the Early Years Local
Funding Formula which is used for setting the rate paid to early
years providers for the Free Entitlement Early Years Funding Rate
and Free for Two Rate. However this will
be subject to a separate key decision for 2024-25 due to the wider
changes in Free Entitlement Funding.
 

Options:
The
options considered for setting the primary and secondary school
budgets are outlined in the consultation document to schools.
Proposed changes to the primary and secondary schools funding
formula have been limited to avoid any excessive deviation from the
National Funding Formula (NFF) used by Government to allocate
school funding to local authorities for distribution to schools.
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”.

 
The
options for the setting of High Needs funding formula rates will be
considered once the Government confirms final allocations.

 
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:
 

Transfer 1.2% of the Schools Block (which equates to approximately
to £15.2m) into the High Needs Block for 2024-25.

 

In relation to the Kent Local Funding Formula for schools in
2024-25:

 

i.              
Continue with the Falling Roll fund. This will be fully funded from
the Department for Education allocation for 2024-25 this equates to
approximately £0.5m.
 

ii.             
Set the local Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG) percentage at 0.5%
for primary and secondary schools.
 

iii.            
Set the Minimum Per Pupil Funding Level (MPPFL) as per the value in
the table below. This is equivalent to 0.9% the National Funding
Formula:
 

 

2024-25 (£
per pupil)

Primary

£4,568.51

Secondary
(KS3)

£5,719.06

Secondary
(KS4)

£6,274.02

 
 

iv.           
All other factors within the current local funding formula to be
set as per the National Funding Formula (NFF) less 1.7%.
 

v.             
Set the SEN Notional Budget calculation using the following
National Funding Formula factors: 5% Basic Entitlement, 70% of Ever
6 Free School Meal, Deprivation and Mobility Factors, and 100% Low
Prior Attainment Factor, and 43% MPPFL & MFG Factors
 

In relation to Kent’s High Needs Formula Rates:

 

i.              
2% inflationary increase for High Needs Formula budgets including
SEN Inclusion Fund, Mainstream top up funding, Specialist Resource
Provisions in mainstream schools, Specialist Teaching &
Learning Service, Special Schools, Alternative Provision, FE
colleges, and Specialist Post 16 Provisions.
 

ii.             
The threshold for the additional mainstream top up funding (also
known as SEN Notional Budget top up) will be set based on the size
of the school:
 

·      
Primary school (school roll up to 175): 40% schools notional SEN
budget.

·      
Primary school (school roll between 176 and 315): 45% of schools
notional SEN budget.

·      
Primary school (school roll over 315): 50% of schools notional SEN
budget.

·      
Secondary schools: 50% of schools notional SEN budget
 

Delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Children, Young
People and Education to make any further necessary changes to
funding rates in light of any final affordability issues and
further feedback from the Schools Funding Forum.