Agenda item

Forum members to note the contents of the report and data provided.

Schools Forum received a report which provided the Forum with the High Needs Block (HNB) monitoring position as at 31 August2021, which was projected to 31 March 2022, together with the special provision occupancy as at 31 August 2021.

The HNB current grant for 2021/22 was £53.240m. The anticipated in year surplus as at 31 August 2021, projected to 31 March 2022, was £1.332m.

The balance bought forward as at 1 April 2021 was £0.597m surplus. Appendix 1 to the report provided further details in relation to the 2021/22 High Needs Block Budget Allocation, the actual expenditure as at 31 August 2021 and the variance from budget.

Variations:

Variation 1

Out of borough placements, other associated costs, showed a £20,000 saving and was due to the reduction in room hire costs for the delivery of support to students that were awaiting a school roll. During COVID these had been delivered virtually and from September 21 it was anticipated that these would be delivered face to face.

Variation 2

Sandwell Community School - Additional funding of £200,000 had been included here to be prudent to fund pupils placed at SCS which required top up that was not included in the funding which already been allocated. SCS had funded 180 places at £10,000 per place, plus Top Up for 80 places. This area was currently under review by a Task and Finish Group.

Variation 3

High Point had opened on 1 September 2021. It had initially been thought that the place element would have to be met through the HNB. The DFE clarified in July 2021 that this would be funded directly with no impact on Sandwell’s HNB.

Variation 4

An amount £480K from the Early Years Grant had been used to offset the early support for pupils in private provider settings and those in Mainstream schools had been set against the schools’ delegation and were not shown separately. The £480,000 did not cover the full costs of meeting the needs of the pupils in these settings. Questions had been raised at the SEND Consultation Working Group regarding the level of grant and the possibility that this could be increased.

Variation 5

The total variances equated to a saving of £349,865 across 9 service areas. These were mainly due to staff turnover, maternity leave, opting out of the LA superannuation scheme and full time budgeted posts covered by staff on reduced hours.

Variation 6

The Preventing Secondary Exclusions Team had not been appointed to, so there was a saving of £198,600 in 2021/22. Various options for utilising these funds would be put forward as part of the SEND review Consultation which would be issued shortly.

Variation 7

Alternative Provision had been budgeted at £843,000 in December 2020. Based on the leavers in July 2021, and the close monitoring of placements by the Alternative Provision Panel, the saving was currently predicted to be £313,000. Any changes in this would be reported and evidenced in future monitoring reports.

Variation 8

SEN Developments had showed an underspend of £449,300. This budget head currently covered independent appeals and reports, and any funding agreed that did not clearly fit onto any other budget head. It also held the HNB balancing figure of £440,100, which was difference between the calculated budgets as at 1 April 2021 and the HNB Grant initial settlement 2021/22. those in Mainstream schools.

Focus Provision and Special School Place Funding

Appendix 2 to the report, detailed the Focus Provision, Special School and PRU commissioned places for the period 1/4/21-31/3/22, together with the average occupancy for the summer term 2021.

A total of 1,103 commissioned places had been funded and allocated to schools of which 65 were for other local authority pupils places in Sandwell schools, for which either Sandwell SEN, or Schools recoup top up funding. An additional 25 places had been budgeted for which may be allocated to special schools should they exceed their commissioned allocations on average over the financial year.

Table 1, below, sets out the new provisions / expansions in special provision from 1 September 2021.

The Focus Provisions overall average under occupancy, as at 31 August 2021, was 12%. Primary under occupancy was 9% while Secondary was 18%.

Across the 4 Special Schools, there was only 1 unoccupied place throughout the Summer Term. The Meadows, Shenstone Lodge and Brades were over commissioned places while Westminster had 6 places under occupancy and Orchard had 1.

The commissioned places were the places that the LA purchased at the beginning of the financial year and were not the actual numbers that the schools could accommodate (PAN).

The data for PRUs had been run on SYNERGY, as at 31 August 2021, and showed 52 vacancies. Primrose was full, Sandwell Community School had 16 Vacancies and Albright showed 11 vacancies.

Forum Members queried what the likelihood was of the vacancies being filled. J Gill clarified that not all vacancies were ‘actual vacancies’. A proportion of those detailed would be due to staff turnover and were classed as a vacancy whilst in the recruitment process.

Forum Members also queried 4.4 of the report in relation to Secondary underoccupancy being at 18% and whether the correct Focussed Provision was in place. M Tallents clarified that this matter was currently under review, along with all Focussed Provision. A small number of vacancies currently existed, and this data was set out in Appendix 2 of the report. However, the data might be outdated somewhat, as it only included data up until August. Further updates would be provided to the Forum on this matter in due course.

Schools Forum noted the following: -

• the contents of the report in relation to the 2021/22 HNB Grant budget monitoring for the period 1 April – 31 August 2021.

• the data provided on the commissioned places and occupancy for special provisions as at 31 August 2021.