Report of the Strategic Director for Children’s and Education Services

Following the Spending Review announcements and other updates the Council is forecasting an estimated shortfall of £4m in 2022/23, £64m in 2023/24 and £85m by 2024/25. This report sets out the high-level position. Officers have identified options to balance the budget in 2022/23 which are subject to approval.

The Committee received a report of the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services which stated that, following the Spending Review announcements and other updates, the Council was forecasting an estimated shortfall of £4m in 2022/23, £64m in 2023/24 and £85m by 2024/25. This report set out the high-level position. Officers had identified options to balance the budget in 2022/23 which were subject to approval.

The main points and themes within the report included:

• Current budget position;
• Headline priorities for the service;
• Indicative revenue budget; and
• Capital budget and pipeline priorities.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• The likelihood of getting any government grants to assist with decarbonisation, to ask that the report on climate change and schools which had been requested for the January meeting include whether funding would be available to help schools with this and also a request for an update on retrofitting and solar panels;
• Home school transport;
• That the Council should look at schools which were underspending on their budget;
• Concern about the underfunding of the High Needs Block from the Government; and
• To recognise the progress that had been made by Children’s Services, including fewer children coming into care, which was beneficial for the children and for the service’s budget.

The Chair suggested that the Committee receive a report on Home School Transport at a future meeting.  The Director of Education explained the eligibility criteria for Home School Transport and the challenges facing this provision.  She advised that the Council would be reviewing its policy on this in co-production with parents and carers.  The Chair also requested that the Committee receive a report on homeless families being placed in bed and breakfast accommodation outside of the city and the impact of this, such as the higher costs of home school transport.

The Director of Education advised that there were a number of individual grants available to schools relating to decarbonisation and that the Council was undertaking a piece of work which included bringing all that information together in one place.  She informed the Committee about a report being considered at the next meeting of the Schools Forum on undertaking condition surveys of school buildings for local authority-maintained schools, including factors such as energy efficiency.  She advised that this would be a basis from which the Council could understand the current position and look at how the capital maintenance budget could be used most effectively and could also be used to provide targeted advice to schools on grants that they could apply for to undertake the work identified by the survey.

The Deputy Director of Children’s Services recognised the improvements in quality of practice while also drawing Members’ attention to challenges from an increasing population, the number of children needing referral from Early Help into statutory services and the medium to long term impacts from the pandemic.

Decisions

1.            To request a report on Home School Transport.

2.            To request a report on homeless families, in particular families being placed outside of the city and the impact of this.