The Ealing Schools Forum was scheduled to meet to discuss school funding for the 2026-27 financial year. The meeting was also scheduled to cover updates on early years funding, school block funding, and high needs funding pressures. Additionally, the forum was expected to make decisions regarding the growth fund, education function allocations, de-delegation of services, and centrally retained expenditure.

School Funding 2026-27

The Ealing Schools Forum was scheduled to discuss school funding for the 2026-27 financial year, covering various aspects including early years, schools, high needs, and central school services.

The forum was expected to consider a report from Councillor Blacker, Cabinet Member for a Fairer Start, which provided an overview of government announcements and sought approval for several key decisions. These included:

• Growth Fund: Agreement on the rules governing the allocation of funding from the growth fund.
• Education Functions: Agreement on top-slicing maintained school budgets for specific education functions.
• De-delegation: Agreement on the de-delegation of certain expenditure areas from the schools block.
• Central School Services Block (CSSB): Agreement on centrally retained funding.
• Schools Block to High Needs Block Transfer: Agreement on the transfer of 0.5% from the schools block to the high needs block.

The report also provided updates on the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) management plan and the composition of the notional SEN budget.

Early Years Block

The forum was scheduled to note an update on early years funding. The report pack noted that the final stage of the rollout of the government childcare reforms occurred in September 2025, allowing eligible working parents to access up to 30 free hours per week for eligible children aged from 9 months until they start school. Uptake of the new working entitlement offer has been strong with 3,810 children using their allocated code in the borough, 1,001 of these are for children aged from 9 months – 2 years.

Capital Funding for the expansion of early years has created 70 places for children under 2 years in the borough, with 75 places still to be created. There are 6 private, voluntary and independent settings (PVI) projects and 2 projects in the council's Maintained nursery schools.

Wraparound expansion funding has to date enabled schools and private providers based on school sites to create 126 wraparound places for both before and after school places. Phase 2 funding has been released and interested parties will be invited to submit bids for funding to create Wraparound places.

The government announced Phase 2 and 3 of the school-based nurseries capital funding programme in October 2025. Applications for Phase 2 funding close on the 11th December and four schools in the borough have to date expressed interest in applying.

Ealing have received £0.392m of Early Years National Insurance contributions and teachers' pay grant (EYNTPG) funding and this has now been allocated and paid out to schools with nursery classes and maintained nursery schools in line with DfE methodology.

The government have announced that, following the final roll out of the new entitlements, there will be an increase in the grant pass-through requirement to providers to 97% in 2026-27.

An early years funding consultation was scheduled to launch in November to seek the views and comments from key partners and stakeholders on levels and approach for inclusion funding and central retained expenditure for 2026-27.

Schools Block Funding

The forum was scheduled to note an update on schools block funding formula allocations and consider the proposed funding formula factors to be used in 2026-27.

A summary policy document was published in June, setting out the structure of the schools NFF for 2026-2027, in advance of confirming the NFF factor values and allocations. This document confirmed that the school NFF will continue to use the same factors as the 2025-2026 NFF.

The policy document confirmed that the mainstream schools budget support grant (SBSG) and the National Insurance Contributions (NIC) grant will be rolled into the NFF for 2026-2027 using a similar approach to previous grants.

Ealing's area cost adjustment (ACA) calculation will be applied to the above values, just as it has been to the current grants, to reflect geographical variation in labour market costs.

2026-27 schools block funding will be based on October 2025 pupil numbers. Based on Ealing's 2025-26 primary and secondary units of funding, this provisional drop in pupil numbers represents a decrease in schools block funding of around £4.100m across primary and secondary, before increases to the value of the block to reflect the rolling in of previous grants and factor value changes are factored in.

The forum was scheduled to consider the responses received to the 2026-27 schools funding consultation document. 25 schools responded to the consultation: 20 maintained primary schools, 2 maintained secondary schools, and 3 academies.

The forum was scheduled to provide feedback on the proposed value of the Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG), which would enable school budgets to remain as close to the NFF as possible. Of the 25 responses to this question in the consultation, 23 (92%) supported setting the MFG in Ealing Council's funding formula at the lowest allowable rate and two (8%) did not support this.

Growth Funding

The forum was scheduled to decide the basis for allocating funding from the Growth Fund. The growth fund is an element within the Schools Block, funded through a formula and allocated by the DfE to the LA, based on growth and/or significant reductions seen at small area level within the local authority in the previous year.

The LA received 25 responses to the consultation question on the growth fund, with 22 (88%) agreeing that the LA should maintain the current rules and continue to fund explicit growth at equivalent to the age weighted pupil unit (AWPU), and three schools (12%) disagreeing with this proposal.

The LA propose to increase the explicit growth fund rates to reflect the 2026-27 age weighted pupil unit rates.

The LA propose the continuation of the existing additional criteria whereby the following growth fund allocations can also be agreed, based on individual circumstances:

• Where building works are required and agreed by the LA costing in excess of £2m, £15,000 a year for two financial years, the timing of the release of funding is following the approval of statutory proposals or the increase in the school's planned admission number where statutory proposals are not required. Funding may be released earlier at the discretion of the LA.
• In exceptional cases, for example where additional furniture, learning resources or support staff costs are required which cannot be charged to capital, a case may be made to the LA for additional revenue funding up to a maximum of £15,000 one-off payment.
• Where a mainstream school is developing a specialist resource provision (SRP) or a designated unit, funding for leadership capacity of up to £20,000 a year, for up to four terms before opening, plus the cost of the SRP lead teacher a term in advance of opening.

Maintained Schools: Education Functions and De-delegation

The Schools Forum was scheduled to decide, on a line-by-line basis, the education function allocations for maintained schools. For the current financial year, the Schools Forum agreed at their November 2024 meeting to top-slice £38.15 per pupil for functions in respect of maintained schools.

The forum was scheduled to decide the de-delegation of certain services. Regulations require primary and high school members of the Forum to decide as separate groups whether to de-delegate certain areas on an annual basis. For the current year the Schools Forum, each sector voting separately, agreed to de-delegate:

• Contingencies
• Trade Union Facility Time
• Assessment of Free School Meals Eligibility
• Behaviour Support Services (primary only)

Centrally Retained Budgets

The forum was scheduled to decide the centrally retained expenditure allocations, line by line, that make up the Central School Services Block for 2026-27. The central school services block (CSSB) was introduced in 2018 to fund local authorities for the statutory duties that they hold for both maintained schools and academies.

The Schools Forum was requested on a line by line basis to approve centrally retained funding to the total of the central school services block (CSSB).

As part of the Central School Services Block, in addition to the funding for ongoing responsibilities, the LA receives lump sum funding from the DfE for historic commitments agreed by the Schools Forum prior to 2018.

High Needs Funding

The forum was scheduled to note an update on high needs funding pressures and decide on the transfer of 0.5% from the Schools Block to the High Needs Block, approximately £1.69m.

It was anticipated that Ealing LA will continue to be funded at the funding floor. In 2025-26 this translated into a 5.7% increase in Ealing's overall high needs block allocation, following the allocation of an additional £1billion pounds of funding to high needs nationally. This took Ealing's total high needs block allocation to £83.320m (after deductions).

The forum was scheduled to note the composition of the notional SEN Budget.

The forum was scheduled to note an update on the mainstream level descriptors project, and consider and provide feedback on the consultation responses on the possible introduction of high incidence and / or early support funding elements in the new mainstream high needs funding model.

The forum was scheduled to note the progress made on the implementation of the 2024-25 balance control mechanism and consider and provide feedback on the consultation responses on a future change to the mechanism.

Consultation on Financial Issues

The Schools Forum was scheduled to note and comment on the arrangements set out in the report on which the Council is required to consult the Schools Forum annually.

Other Matters

Minutes

The forum was scheduled to approve the minutes of the Ealing Schools Forum meeting held on 2 July 2025.

Membership

The forum was scheduled to note the current membership of the Ealing Schools' Forum. The report pack included a table of the Ealing Schools Forum Membership as of November 2025.