Agenda item

Update on national funding issues/local funding issues

Minutes:

Nic Barani gave a verbal update and confirmed that the Local Authority (LA) had received their 2019/20 DSG settlement of £170.84m, an increase of £5.5m above the originally anticipated amount. The budget setting process was now underway for all four blocks and had to be published to schools by Thursday 28 February.  The LA would endeavour to release the information to schools before that date.  The following headlines were noted:

Ø  Teachers’ pay grant allocated on top of existing budgets.

Ø  Teachers’ pension grant: the rates were yet to be finalised, but it was understood they would rise from 16.4% to 23.6% in September 2019.  This would be funded by the DfE but funding beyond March 2020 had not been confirmed.

Nic Barani would establish whether the funding would be per pupil, as per the teachers’ pay award.

Ø  Pupil Premium funding would continue in 2019/20 at the 2018/19 rates.

Ø  Free School meal supplement grant would be £440 per pupil.

Ø  An additional £440,000 funding for the High Needs Block in 2019/20 had been announced in December 2018.

 

To date, there had not been any information released about the additional funding for the ‘little extras’ announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Budget.