Purpose

To provide details of the 2026/27 Schools
Finance Settlement and approve the local funding formula for early
years and schools

Content

The Cabinet has
considered an update on the key announcements made by the
Department for Education (DfE) on the education funding settlement
for 2026/27, and has:-
 
(1) Noted the details
of the Education Funding Settlement for 2026/27.
 
(2) Approved the early
year’s budget as defined at section 3.1 to 3.2 of the main
report and the updated local schools funding formula model as
outlined in section 3.3 to 3.5 of the main report and summarised in
the tables provided at Appendix 1 & 3.
 
(3) Approved the
governance process outlined in Appendix 2 to enable the pass
through of funding from the Department for Education (DfE) as,
namely to authorise the Director of Education, Work and Skills to
approve the entry into of the Early Education and Childcare
Provider Agreement and to agree any variations and amendments
required to the contractual documentation, in consultation with the
Assistant Director of Governance, to give effect to the agreement,
and that such agreement will be entered into by either attaching
the council’s seal or the electronic signature of the
Director of Education Work and Skills.

Alternative options considered

Both the early years and schools local funding
formula models are aligned to regulatory controls set by the DfE
(i.e. mandatory 97% pass through rates for early years and minimum
funding levels (MFLs) for schools, etc).
 
In relation to the local schools funding
formula model for primary schools, the local model used is aligned
to a continued phased transition approach towards the national
funding formula (NFF) model to avoid significant turbulence in
individual school funding allocations across the borough.