Issue - meetings

As detailed in the recommendation.

The Cabinet Member for Education introduced the report which provided an update on progress of the Formula Funding Review and requested authority to commence consultation with all schools. 

            School funding regulations required that every local authority should have a funding formula to be used to determine the budget share for each school.  There was a need to renew the educational rationale underpinning the schools funding formula and the existing formula pre-dated most of the major changes to school funding that had occurred since 1997.

A key aim of the revised formula was to secure greater consistency and equity in how funding was distributed to schools, recognising particular circumstances that schools faced.

            A Project Board was established together with three project teams and a considerable amount of analysis work had been undertaken.  Updates on progress had been presented to the Schools Budget Forum, Headteacher representative groups and the trade unions.  The modelling had produced alternative ways of distributing funds to schools, based on a review of the regulatory framework, the physical capacity of schools and the desire to simplify the administration and the understanding of funding.

RESOLVED:

That consultation on principles to underpin the school funding formula for the 2014-15 financial year be approved.