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

Following the Spending Review announcements and provisional local government finance settlement 2022/23 the Council is forecasting a balanced budget for 2022/23, a gap of £37m in 2023/24 and £58m by 2024/25. This report sets out the high-level position.  

The Committee received a report of the Strategic Director (Children and Education Services) which stated that, following the Spending Review announcements and provisional local government finance settlement 2022/23, the Council was forecasting a balanced budget for 2022/23, a gap of £37m in 2023/24 and £58m by 2024/25.  The report set out the high-level position.  Included in the report were the priorities for the services in the remit of this Committee. Appended were details of the initial revenue budget changes proposed by officers and the planned capital programme as well as information on the 2022/23 Dedicated Schools Grant.  The Committee was invited to comment on the proposals prior to their submission to the Executive on 16 February 2022.

The main points and themes within the report included:

• Summary of Council budget;
• Current budget position;
• Scrutiny of draft budget proposals and budget report;
• Next steps;
• Children and Education Services context;
• Budget overview;
• Dedicated Schools Grant; and
• Capital budget.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services drew Members’ attention to the budget reports which had been submitted to the Communities and Equalities Scrutiny Committee and the Resources and Governance Scrutiny Committee which included proposals for additional funding for youth services and for Free School Meals over the Easter holidays respectively.

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

• To what extent the budget had taken into account the need for more special school places;
• Funding for improving the condition of school buildings, including school-based Early Years provision;
• To welcome the focus on carbon reduction around schools and to recognise the additional benefits of investing in reducing carbon, such as lower energy bills and improving children’s well-being;
• Whether the Council had considered asset transfers for buildings which had previously been Council-run daycare provision but were now commissioned to other providers;
• Concern about home to school transport putting additional pressure on the Children’s Services budget, as outlined in the report; and
• Concern about the national insurance increase referred to in the report.

The Director of Education reported that school places for children with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) were funded by the Department for Education (DfE) through the High Needs Block of the Dedicated Schools Grant, which would be increased by £10 million next year.  She informed Members about additional special school places which had recently been created and about plans for more to become available from next year.  She advised that the Council had a capital maintenance grant each year to assist schools with significantly expensive maintenance issues, such as a new roof or boiler, and so had an understanding of the condition of school buildings; however, she drew Members’ attention to proposals to undertake condition surveys of school buildings which, she advised, would formalise this knowledge and enable the Council to plan work for the future.  She reported that the DfE was going to be making some funding available for new school buildings and that these conditions surveys would help the Council to provide evidence to the DfE about why some of this funding should be awarded to Manchester.  In response to a question from the Chair, she confirmed that the Council only had statutory responsibilities in relation to the maintenance of the buildings of local authority-maintained schools, not academies.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services confirmed that a range of different options were considered for buildings used for Early Years daycare provision.  He suggested that the Committee might want to receive a report on the condition surveys that were due to be carried out on schools and Early Years buildings, once the work had reached an appropriate stage.

The Strategic Director of Children and Education Services highlighted the approach that had been taken to budget savings, which had focused on preventative work and cost avoidance rather than cutting services.  The Chair welcomed the way that this approach had worked in recent years in reducing costs through early intervention to prevent children and young people from entering the care system.

Decision

To endorse the proposals outlined in the report.