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

The Forum considered a report of the Directorate Finance Lead – Children Services and Education which discussed the outcome of the annual analysis of maintained schools in the city that have an excessive revenue balance. The report sought a decision by Maintained school representatives of the Forum on the use of recouped funds received via the mechanism with a proposal that those funds are used to address the current Dedicated School’s Grant cumulative deficit of £2.26m. All Forum members were invited to comment. The report also included a request for volunteers from the Forum for the constitution of an Appeals Panel as part of the appeals process.

The report reiterated the circumstances in which a balance may be deemed excessive and subsequently recouped, with the right to appeal. There was reference to the decision taken last year not to action the recoupment of excessive balances in 2020/21 due to the unknown impact of COVID on schools at the time. The Forum was asked to note that the current position on Manchester maintained schools’ excessive balances was an increase of £2.00m when compared to the previous year.

Forum members were provided with an overview of excessive balances across maintained schools sectors which demonstrated that the number of schools with excessive balances had increased by 51% (22 schools) compared to the last financial year. A list of schools with excessive balances greater than £100k was also provided. The list also provided information on schools that were in deficit.

The report discussed the collective level of committed spend across schools: some had outlined plans for parts of their allowable balance; a majority of the commitments (£2.20m) had been allocated to offset future year budget reductions from falling rolls. This was primarily in the primary sector. Other commitments were attributed to planned works (£1.67m primarily for buildings, grounds improvements and extensions); for planned asset purchases (£0.56m); as well as the carry forward of unspent grants (£0.86m).

A total of 18 schools had been identified as eligible for recoupment with collective excessive balance totalling £1.48m; £0.60m of that amount had been held for more than four years, resulting in total recoupment level of £304k to be actioned in July 2021.

The Forum discussed the underlying reasons for the excesses; including reduced reliance on supply teaching and later than expected funding allocations from the DfE in view of the impact of the global pandemic.

The Chair invited all maintained school representatives on the Forum to vote on whether to use the recouped funds to offset the DSG cumulative deficit balance £2.26m carried forward into 2021/22. Maintained School representatives of the Forum voted unanimously in favour of this proposal.

The Chair then invited volunteers for the composition of the Appeals Panel. The following members volunteered: Gillian Houghton, Michael Carson, Councillor Julie Reid and Alan Braven.

Decisions

1. To agree that recouped funds arising from the clawback mechanism shall be used to offset the cumulative deficit balance of £2.26m carried forward into 2021/22

2. To agree that the composition of Appeals Panel for mechanism shall be: Gillian Houghton, Michael Carson, Councillor Julie Reid and Alan Braven.