The West Northamptonshire Schools Forum met to discuss Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) monitoring, school funding, and early years funding for the upcoming financial year. The forum endorsed consultation proposals for both schools and early years funding for 2026-27, with minor additions to include questions around falling rolls funds and deprivation rates. They also noted the forecast outturn position for the year ending 31 March 2026 and the forward plan, with additional items to be added around education white paper review, changes around requirements of the Education Act S19¹, draft sufficiency strategy update, and forecasting numbers/place planning.

Schools Funding Consultation 2026-27

The Schools Forum endorsed the proposals for the West Northants Schools Budget Consultation 2026-27, subject to the addition of a question around provision of a falling rolls fund.

The forum reviewed the consultation proposals for school funding for 2026-27, noting that the provisional National Funding Formula (NFF) and Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) allocations for 2026-27 are expected from the Department for Education (DfE) in the autumn term. The consultation aims to gather feedback from primary and secondary school leaders in West Northamptonshire to inform budget-setting principles.

Key discussion points included:

• Balancing individual school budgets: The council is seeking views on whether to balance individual budgets to the available schools grant through a combination of age weighted pupil unit (AWPU) reduction and capping.
• Transfer of funding: West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) is proposing to continue transferring 0.5% of the schools block to the high needs block, a practice in place since 2023-24.
• Growth fund policy: The forum considered the proposed growth fund policy for 2026-27, including pupil number adjustments for new and growing schools such as Marie Weller, Towcester, Buckton Fields Primary, and Northampton School.
• Central expenditure on education functions: The forum reviewed WNC's proposals for the use of the central schools services block (CSSB) funding in 2026-27, which covers services such as school admissions, copyright, and school improvement.
• De-delegations and education functions: The consultation includes proposals for de-delegating funding from maintained primary schools budgets for specific purposes, such as trade union duties, school improvement grant (SIG), and redundancy costs.

The consultation includes several questions for schools, including whether they agree with the proposal to continue transferring 0.5% of funding from the schools block to the high needs block, and whether they agree with balancing the schools' individual budget shares by applying a cap to year-on-year per pupil increases.

Early Years Funding Consultation 2026-27

The Schools Forum endorsed the proposals for the West Northants Early Years Budget Consultation 2026-27, subject to the addition of a question around provision of a deprivation rate for all ages.

The forum endorsed the consultation proposals for early years funding for 2026-27, noting that the provisional DSG announcement for the early years block has been delayed. The consultation seeks views on the overarching principles of the early years funding formula for WNC in 2026-27.

Key discussion points included:

• Pass-through rate: WNC is proposing to pass through 97% of the total budget for under-2s and 2-year-old funding to providers, retaining 3% centrally. They also plan to increase the pass-through rate to 97% for 3 and 4-year-olds in the 2026-27 budget.
• Deprivation supplement: The forum considered the proposal to continue the deprivation supplement for 3 and 4-year-olds, based on the IDACI bands under 30%.
• Early years targeted SEND funding (SENIF): The forum reviewed the proposal to increase the SENIF hourly rate by £2.00 to £12.00 from 2026-2027.
• Maintained Nursery School (MNS) supplementary funding: WNC is proposing to continue to distribute 100% of the MNS supplementary funding directly to the MNS settings on a lagged basis.

The consultation includes several questions for early years providers, including whether they agree with passing all of the increase on 3 and 4-year-old funding through the base rate for universal and extended hours, and whether they agree with the proposal to set the early years central budget at 3% and pass through 97% of the allocated funding entitlement allocation to providers.

DSG Monitoring 2025-26

The Schools Forum noted the forecast outturn position for the year ending 31 March 2026.

Emily Cooledge, Strategic Finance Business Partner, presented a report on the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) monitoring for 2025-26. The report provided an assessment of West Northamptonshire Council's financial performance against its approved 2025-26 DSG budget, incorporating key financial risks, issues, and opportunities identified since 1 April 2025.

Key points from the report included:

• Forecast overspend: The DSG is currently forecasting an overspend of £31.1 million due to increasing demand and complexity of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) requiring additional support.
• High needs block: WNC has seen a 70% increase in Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) since vesting day, which is larger than most other councils nationally. The forecast overspend on the high needs block totals £32.1 million.
• Early years block: The forecast underspend across the early years block totals £1.1 million.
• DSG balances: The forecast DSG balances as at 31 March 2026 are £52.9 million.

The report highlighted that while government funding for SEND has increased since 2019, it has not kept pace with demand or inflation.

Forward Plan

The Schools Forum noted the forward plan, subject to the addition of the following items:

• December 2025: Review of education white paper; Challenge and change around requirements of Education Act S19
• February 2026: Draft sufficiency strategy update; Forecasting numbers/place planning