Agenda item

Coral Miller presented a paper outlining the budget of £21,503,815 which includes a contingency for growth figure of just over £600,000 which was carried forward from 2014. Nandita Sirker said that a business case will be made to the DfE to seek additional funding as there is a higher need than predicted.  Coral Miller said that the budget was vulnerable as there is this reliance on carry forward which may not be available in future years. It was suggested that bands may have to be revisited.

Helen Huntley expressed concern of the impact this could have on special settings and their ability to meet needs, particularly in Alternative Provision. There the DfE had raised the base line funding from £8,000 to £10,000 but the top ups have decreased already by the same amount so that there has been no improvement in the funding.

There was discussion about the centrally retained budgets.

Debbie Richards asked why there was no reference to speech and language funding on the breakdown (Appendix A).  Nandita Sirker explained that it is within the figure for mainstream support for pupils with sensory needs. 

A detailed breakdown of the £206,700 for direct educational support for looked after children and the Virtual Head Service was requested and Coral Miller will provide a breakdown on this.

Maggie Waller asked about the sum of £149,491 labelled as Non Controllable.  Coral Miller explained that these are indirect costs for a share of SBC overheads, building costs etc and were the same as last year.

Helen Huntley questioned the figure of £130,995 for Education provision other than at School at Haybrook and said that this does not go to Haybrook.  Coral Miller will clarify and provide detail.

Kathleen Higgins expressed concern that monies should not simply be put into contingency but be spent on pupils. Nandita Sirker explained that the contingency fund was there for issues such as tribunals and agreed that how the contingency was spent should be more transparent.  Coral Miller will provide a more detailed breakdown.

Robin Crofts is producing a paper outlining the centrally retained funds for Cambridge Education for the Forum meeting in May and it was agreed that additional detail on the SBC budgets also be included in that report.