/ Schools Forum / Item 6 /
/ 12 July 2011 /
/ Impact of deferred entry /
/ Report of the Director of Children’s Services and County Treasurer /
Contact: Thomas Whiffen , 01962 846287, ; Martin Goff 01962 846185,
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1 Summary
1.1 From September 2011 parents can choose to defer their child's entry to a reception class and schools must keep the place for that child. This paper looks at the impact of that in financial terms.
1.2 It is proposed that any schools affected stand the impact financially of any deferred entry to Reception classes after the Easter Break.
2 The legal and policy framework
2.1 The current School Admissions Code makes it clear that admission authorities
· must allow parents of children who are offered a place at the school before they are of compulsory school age to defer their child’s entry until later in the school year.
· where entry is deferred, admission authorities must hold the place for that child and not offer it to another child. and
· the parent would not however be able to defer entry beyond the beginning of the term after the child’s fifth birthday, nor beyond the academic year for which the original application was accepted.
2.2 In separate statutory guidance the DfE states that "parents will retain the right to defer their child’s entry to school until the term after their 5th birthday and these children will continue to be able to access their free entitlement in other early years settings instead, up until compulsory school age".
2.3 In Hampshire these statutory requirementshave created the policy for September 2011 admission whereby deferment is allowed until after the Christmas break for Autumn, Spring or Summer birthday children and after the Easter break for Spring or Summer birthday children. Some schools have already asked the County Council for advice to be used in conversation with parents wanting to take up the opportunity to defer their child's entry into school.
2.4 The County Council is clear that deferment is an opportunity intended to be available to ensure that parents, schools and pre-school settingshave an input todecisions that best meet the needs of the child.
2.5 A schools communication explaining the position was sent to schools on 6 June 2011 http://cscommunications.hants.gov.uk/schoolcommunications/details.php?ref=7249
3 The financial impact
3.1 The previous policy was that deferment was possible to the start of the January term only. This meant that the pupils were always included in the schools’ census and, therefore, the budget share and Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) allocations in respect of infant and primary schools. There was an extra cost on the Early Years Education (EYE) budget for an additional term in a private, voluntary or independent (PVI) setting as compared with those children who went straight into the Reception class in September. Providing the number of deferments does not increase noticeably any pressure on that budget should be manageable.
3.2 However the introduction of deferment to after the Easter break for Spring or Summer birthday children raises some new issues. The fact that such deferred entry children are not pupils on the roll of schools at the qualifying date for both budget share and DSG purposes means that neither the school nor the County Council receive any funding for these children as school pupils in their Reception Year, although there is some early years recognition see 3.5 below. .
3.3 The schools communication (referred to above) did warn schools of this fact. The reduced budget share for a school is one off £2,994 for each deferred pupil. Since the funding policy for the infant phase is a pupil teacher ratio of 28 to 1 it is reasonable to expect schools to live with the consequences of an occasional deferred pupil or two.
3.4 Should a child with a deferred place take up no entitlement to free EYE then there is just a loss of one year’s DSG and budget share funding.
3.5 If the child is still in Early Years Education at the January count date s/he will be recognised for DSG at the lower Early Years Census full time equivalent of 0.6 (15 hours instead of the nominal 25 hours for full time school pupils). Overall the extra payments to PVIs and the lower DSG balance when compared with the no deferment position so there is no “spare” cash available for assisting any school affected.
3.6 Furthermore any attempt to create notional pupil numbers to make up for the deferred pupils at census date could get very complicated as regards budget shares. However ways of identifying how many pupils are deferred entry are being put in place so it would be possible to establish whether the issue is significant in 2012 and whether it grows over time.
3.7 It is proposed that schools stand the financial effect of any deferments to entry to Reception classes after the Easter break for Spring or Summer birthday children. The numbers involved will be monitored and any substantial numbers will be reported to Resources Groups and Schools Forum. Thus it is sensible to review the position in summer 2012.
4 Recommendations
4.1 Schools Forum is asked to endorse the approach whereby schools receive no funding in respect of any deferments to entry to Reception classes after the Easter break for Spring or Summer birthday children.
4.2 Schools Forum is asked to note that the position will be reviewed in a year’s time.
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