Agenda Item 4                       

Report to:	Schools’ Forum
Date:	19 November 2021
Title of Report:	Growth Fund / Falling Rolls Fund
By:	Gary Langford, Place Planning Manager
Purpose of Report:	To update Schools’ Forum on spend in the 2021/22 financial year and to seek approval for funding for the 2022/23 financial year.

Recommendation:

Schools’ Forum is asked to approve an allocation of £724,386 for the 2022/23 Growth Fund.

1. Introduction

1.1 The 2021/22 Growth and Falling Rolls Funds were approved by Schools’ Forum on 20 November 2020.

1.2 The Growth Fund supports maintained and non-maintained mainstream schools which are required to provide extra places to meet basic need within the local authority.  The fund is provided for:

· Key Stage 1 top-up: paid to schools to enable them to comply with Key Stage 1 class size legislation, which sets a maximum class size of 30 pupils with one teacher. There are a few exceptions where class sizes can exceed 30, but there is no entitlement to Growth Fund, for example, arising from admissions through the Fair Access Protocol.

· Additional classes: where the local authority has made a formal request for a school to set up one or more additional classes or requests a permanent increase in a school’s Published Admission Number.

· New school funding: when new schools open in a local authority area, they receive pre–opening funding through a formula to cover costs incurred prior to the opening and diseconomy funding to cover costs incurred while the school fills to capacity. The funding decreases year on year as more year groups in the new school are admitted.

1.3       The Falling Rolls Fund is used to support good or outstanding schools that have temporary, but significant, falling rolls, but where local planning data shows the places will be needed in the near future. It is designed to avoid the need for a school to restructure and then recruit again shortly afterwards. The funding is for maintained and non-maintained schools. The circumstances in which a payment is made from the Falling Rolls fund are:

· The school is judged to be good or outstanding at their last Ofsted inspection (this is a mandatory requirement from the DFE).

· The number on roll has dropped by more than 5% between the October 2020 census and the October 2021 census.

· Local planning data (East Sussex County Council pupil forecasting model) predicts that the number on roll will, in October 2023, be equal to or exceed their number on roll as in October 2020.

2. Growth Fund 2021/22

2.1       Schools’ Forum approved a budget of £1,682,300 for the 2021/22 Growth Fund.  This figure was based on estimated Key Stage 1 pupil numbers, the predicted additional classes required for the 2021/22 academic year and the number of new schools that required diseconomy funding.

2.2       In 2021/22, the numbers of schools eligible for either Key Stage 1 top-up funding, additional class funding or new schools funding were:

· 41 primary schools eligible for Key Stage 1 top-up funding

· 10 primary schools eligible for additional class funding

· 3 secondary schools eligible for additional class funding

· 1 all-through school eligible for new schools funding

2.3       To date, £1,229,448 of the Growth Fund budget has been spent in 2021/22, leaving a balance of £452,852 unallocated.  The underspend has come about largely because fewer schools qualified for Key Stage 1 top-up funding than had been predicted last year.  It is proposed to carry forward this amount to the next financial year, thereby reducing the amount sought in 2022/23.

2.4       A summary of spend in 2021/22 is provided in Appendix A.

3.         Growth Fund 2022/23

3.1       The proposed allocation for 2022/23 is based on the estimated October 2021 pupil numbers and the estimated Key Stage 1 numbers as in October 2022.  A 10% contingency has been added to the Key Stage 1 top-up element to allow for any unforeseen changes.

3.2       Additional class funding for 2022/23 is based on the predicted need for places identified through the annual update to the pupil forecasting model, most recently updated in July 2021 and available in the School Organisation Plan 2021-2025, recently approved for publication by the Lead Member for Education and Inclusion, Special Educational Needs and Disability.  A 10% contingency has been added to the additional class element to allow for any unanticipated pressures.

3.3       It is currently estimated that the following numbers of schools will be eligible for Growth Fund support in 2022/23:

· 39 primary schools potentially eligible for Key Stage 1 top-up funding

· 3 primary schools potentially eligible for additional class funding

· 3 secondary schools potentially eligible for additional class funding

· 1 all-through school eligible for new schools funding

3.4       In total the Growth Fund requirement for 2022/23 is £1,177,244.  This figure can be partially offset by the carry forward of £452,852 from 2021/22, as described in 2.3 above.  Therefore, the actual requirement for 2022/23 is £724,386.

Recommendation:

Schools’ Forum is recommended to approve an allocation of £724,386 for the 2022/23 Growth Fund.

3.5       A breakdown of the Growth Fund calculation for 2022/23 is provided in Appendix B.  The updated Growth Fund guidance document for 2022/23 will be available online ahead of the new financial year.

4. Falling Rolls Fund 2021/22

4.1       The Falling Rolls Fund budget in 2021/22 is £47,000.  To date, one school – Beckley CE Primary School – was eligible for funding and received £5,000.  We propose carrying forward the unspent balance of £42,000 to 2022/23 when we estimate that one school might be eligible for funding.  A budget of £42,000 will be sufficient to fund the school, if eligible, and provide a contingency for any unforeseen circumstances.  As a result, we do not require any additional funding for the Falling Rolls Fund next year.

4.2       The updated Falling Rolls Fund guidance document for 2022/23 will be available online ahead of the new financial year.

Appendix A

Growth Fund and Falling Rolls Fund summary 2021/22

Appendix B

Growth Fund requirement 2022/23

Funding type	Funding required
Key Stage 1 top-up funding	£630,315
Additional class funding	£490,928
New school funding	£56,000
Net total	£1,177,244
Less carry forward from 2021/22	-£452,858
Request from Schools Forum for 2022/23	£724,386

Falling Rolls Fund requirement 2022/23

Funding type	Funding required
Carry forward from 2021/22	£42,000
Request from Schools Forum for 2022/23	£0
2022/23 allocation	£42,000