I represent Maintained Primary School Governors on Walsall’s Schools Forum. At the October meeting of the Forum, I secured the agreement of members to have the Link to meeting agendas and documents circulated to the Chairs of Governors of schools across Walsall. This should enable school governors across the Borough to see, from our Forward Plan, what is to be discussed, and when, giving them time to ask questions and make comments which the Forum can take into account.

The Dedicated Schools Grant 2023/24

On the Agenda this month was a report on the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) informing the Forum of the DSG outturn position for the school year 2023/24.

One issue stood out from the rest, that of the overspend in what is termed the High Needs Spending Block. The figure of £8.397 million was of concern. The report detailed the main reasons for the overspend which were as follows:

• Place Funding – increase in commissioned specialist places from September 2023 across various schools £0.300m
• Top-up funding (mainstream) – Education Health Care Plan growth and higher band rates in mainstream provision £2.573m
• Top-up funding (out of borough schools) – combination of commissioned specialist places to meet need and demand and an increase in parents choosing out of borough mainstream schools £0.690m
• Top-up funding (specialist) – budget set based on the total number of commissioned places in special schools, but a proportion of places are taken by out of borough pupils who are responsible for paying the top-up funding (£0.713m)
• Independent Schools / Post 16 – combination of commissioned specialist places in the independent sector to meet need due to a lack of available places in and out of borough and an increase in the number of post 16 places in colleges £6.402m
• Special Education Needs Support Services – realignment of the cost of central support services provided by the local authority (£0.508m
• Alternative Provision / Home & Hospital Tuition / Outreach – increase in the number of permanently excluded pupils requiring alternative provision in Key Stage 4 £0.308m.
• Other Provision – nil cost, this budget was initially unallocated and then used to support other pressures across the high needs funding block (£1.147m).
• Tuition costs – increased use of private tuition to support pupils not in provision full-time £0.284m.
• Personal Budgets – increased number of personal budget requests to fund agreed costs to support pupil needs £0.026m.
• Therapies & other health related services – increased provision of other types of support for pupils with additional needs, for example, behaviour, motivational therapy, etc. £0.182m.

The two main causes of the overspend have been highlighted (bold). The report went onto say this overspend was linked to a number of pressures which included the following. A combination of commissioned specialist places in the independent sector to meet need due to a lack of available places in and out of borough and an increase in the number of post 16 places in colleges at £6.402m followed by an increase demand on the service as a whole with increased Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) numbers, and increased costs of provision in mainstream settings creating an overspend of £2.572m.

Walsall Council has developed a DSG Management Plan to outline the progress of the growth in the EHCP along with the resulting increase in costs as well as the mitigating actions to reduce the deficit in future years.

In my view the causes leading to this overspend can be traced back over the past 14 years of austerity measures by successive Conservative Governments which have impacted on councils in the form of cuts to support services out in the community, such as Sure Starts and Children’s Centres to meet the need to balance the books. The Council’s overall Budget has been reduced 30% or more at a time when costs have gone through the roof. All this is little comfort to those struggling to get the support they need not to mention the added pressures on schools and children’s services.