The report of the Directorate Finance Lead – Children and Schools is enclosed

The Forum considered a report of the Directorate Finance Lead – Children and Schools which set out the recently announced Council budget and Savings options proposal for 2020/21 in the context of the projected potential impact on Manchester’s schools. The report also discussed further areas for consideration subject to the outcome of the Local Government Settlement. The Forum was asked to note the report taking into account that the proposals were not yet agreed, were out to public consultation until early 2021, and were yet to be considered by the Council’s scrutiny committees.

It was explained that due to the scale of the budget gap some decisions were required in advance of the Spending Review and the Local Government Finance Settlement (due in late December) to enable the budget to be balanced next year. Therefore a number of imminent savings proposals /efficiencies were set out in the following areas:

• Service levels agreements with schools – an increase in the charge for the Newly Qualified Teacher offer following a benchmarking exercise with the assurance that this could be increased without reducing take-up.

·         Key Stage Two Writing Moderation – a proposal to charge Primary Academies are charged £200 for Manchester City Council to act as Moderation Provider.

·         Quality Assurance - a proposal to charge Academies 50% of the cost of the Quality Assurance Professional visit (£475 per visit). These activities were anticipated to generate £30k 2021/22 onwards.

·         Schools Quality Agreements – a proposal to utilise part of the School Improvement Grant to fund School Quality Assurance officer posts and release capacity in the Local Authority’s budget. A £300k saving would be achieved in 2021/22. This would then reduce to £150k, 2022/23 onwards and retain elements of the established and effective Quality Assurance model.

·         Free Travel - following a review of the Free Travel Policy and the creation of more secondary school places across the city, a £400k projected saving from the Free Travel budget 2021/22 onwards based on the current level of applications made for free school travel.

·         Early Years Speech and Language Commission – a proposed revision of the Speech and Language Therapy pathway to be redesigned with partners. Reductions would be phased incrementally over a three-year period, starting in 2022/23 at a rate of £100k per annum.

·         Dedicated Schools Grant - (£1m) - Contribution to support to multi-agency placements has been reduced in 2020/21 and will be drawn down upon on a one-off basis in 2021/22.

·         School Catering Service – At its December 2020 meeting, the Executive would consider a proposal to accelerate the withdrawal of the Council’s offer for the school meals provider market in 2021/22.  This would then no longer require the need for further revenue support to the school meals function.  A cost avoidance of c£450k was reported. Implications for staff were outlined. 

In light of the significant deficit in the Local Authority’s budget it was also explained that further options were being developed across Children and Education Services Directorate savings in the region of £7.381m. This figure would however be influenced by the outcome of the Settlement as well as feedback from the public consultation. Where possible the savings had been designed to protect front line services.The Forum was therefore asked to note in the context of the depth and scale of the Local Authority’s budget gap, the potential impacts / risks to Manchester schools.

The risks were summarised as:

·         An adverse impact on the most vulnerable children in the city

·         A reduced capacity to sustain progress and limiting the scope to reform/innovate

·         Reduced work with schools which could impact on the positive relationship which currently exists between schools and the Local Authority and risks fragmentation of the school system in the city.

·         Increase numbers of young people not in education, employment or training 

·         A significantly reduced preventative service/offer leading to compromised specialist services, increases in social work caseloads, quality of practice, unmet need, edge of care leading to: 

The Forum took into consideration that the following item of business discussed proposals for an updated HNB Recovery Plan as a consequence of the DSG overspend in 2019/20  due to ongoing / cumulative HNB pressures, and noted the report.

Decision

To note the report.