Agenda item

Special Educational Needs High Needs Block 2022/23 Budget - Received after agenda publication

Meeting of Schools Forum, Monday, 14th March, 2022 2.30 pm (Item 20/22)

To note the contents of the report.

Minutes:

The Forum received a report which provided Members with the HNB 2022/23 Budget Information.

HNB Budget 2022/23

The HNB Provisional Grant for 2022/23 was £61.267m. After deductions of £3.130m, the grant available for distribution equated to £58.137m.

Table 1, below, showed the deductions of £3.130m which were made at source to the HNB and paid directly to the various educational establishments.

The deductions were revised during the year and notified to the LA if applicable. A further deduction was anticipated for High Point free school and would be met from the budgeted surplus.

	£000
Pre 16 Focus Provision Academy place deductions	480
Special school Academy and Free school Place deductions	1,330
Post 16 SEN mainstream maintained and academy deductions	66
Post 16 Further Education College Deductions	1,254
Total Deductions	3,130

HNB 2022/23 Budget Allocations

Table 2, below, showed the analysis of the 2022/23 HNB Allocation.

Budget Heading	Budget 2022/23 £000	%
1) Independent Schools	5,977	10.3
2) Other LA maintained and Academy mainstream and Special Schools	1,823	3.1
3) Pupil Funding delegated to Schools, PRUS and Post 16	38,426	66.1
4) Other SEN AP Provision	280	0.5
5) Hospital PRU	1,593	2.7
6) SEN Support Services	1,461	2.5
7) Support for Inclusion	4,639	8.0
8) Alternative Provision	410	0.7
9) SEN Developments	1,756	3.0
10) Other High Needs Expenditure	1,616	2.8
11) Exclusions & Reintegration	156	0.3
Total HNB Grant 2022/23	58,137

A more detailed breakdown could be found in Appendix 1 to the report. In addition, Appendix 2 to the report presented a more detailed breakdown of items 9 and 10 in Table 2.

Budgeted Specialist places

The HNB had budgeted for 1267 WTE Specialist Places in Sandwell Provisions across Special Schools, Mainstream Focus Provisions and PRUs.

This was an increase of 109 additional places from the 2021/22 budget that was reported to Schools Forum in June 2021.

Table 3, below, showed the places commissioned for the financial year 2022/23. These were whole time equivalents (WTE) where places had been commissioned from 1 September 2022.

Discussions were still taking place for specialist SEMH places and a nominal figure had been built into the budget to be prudent.

SPECIAL SCHOOLS		Places
The Orchard		147
The Meadows		215
The Westminster School		241
Shenstone Lodge and Brades		95
High Point		50
Elm Tree from 1/9/22 WTE		21
Westminster SPI		12
Additional places budgeted for in year across all Special Schools for potential over occupancy from 1/9/21 WTE		20
Additional Places at SLS to be agreed
TOTAL		801

FOCUS PROVISIONS
Primary Schools	ASD	63
	PD	12
	MLD	10
	HI	12
	SEMH	25
	SLCN	2
New FP From 1/9/22 20 places	SLD	11
Primary Total		135

Secondary Schools	ASD	45
	PD	20
	HI	5
New FP from 1/9/22 10 places	SEMH	6
Secondary Total		76
TOTAL FOCUS PROVISION PLACES		211

PRUs
Primrose PRU (Primary)		25
Sandwell Community School (Secondary)		180
Albright		50
TOTAL PRU PLACES		255

The Vice-Chair queried if the focussed provision being planned for September had already been allocated, or not, or if schools would be asked to bid for / express an interest in.

M Tallents advised that the SLD focussed provision had already been allocated. The SEMH allocation for secondary education was yet to be made. If any schools wished to express an interest in this, they should contact Officers.

The Forum noted the contents of the report.

Supporting documents: