Date: 11 January 2012 / Annex A
Consultation on the proposed decision on the calculation and recovery arrangements for the Academies Funding Transfer for 2011-12 and 2012-13
Response of Essex County Council
Overall approach for calculating the level of the transfer.
The Local Authority specifically supports and welcomes the statement that (18) “The Department remains strongly of the view that it is appropriate for the overall calculation of the amount to be transferred from local government to reflect the LACSEG grant paid to Academies as this is based on the transfer of services to them from local government. “
Similarly the LA welcomes the continued use of S251 (20) to determine amounts to be transferred and supports the view to make changes to S251 to properly reflect the transfer of functions from local authorities to Academies.
The LA would wish to express caution in the approach to include contingencies (22) within the DSG element of LACSEG.
The LA supports the review of specific S251 lines ( Education Welfare Services, Asset Management and Statutory and Regulatory Duties) which affect the formula grant element of LACSEG, and welcomes the detail showing service responsibilities to be retained by the LA or transferred to academies; at least, recognising that not all the functions under these transfer to Academies. However, the sample size used to determine the percentages appears to be very limited (24), particularly as the DfE agrees that there was considerable diversity (25) within this group. Essex would like to express concern over the use of the lowest percentages for the element to be retained as there does not appear to be any evidence to justify this approach.
Essex supports the approach regarding basing the amount used to calculate the transfer on net spending on specific S251 lines(Therapies and other related health services, Pupil Support, Education Welfare Services, School Improvement, Premature retirement/redundancy costs and Monitoring National Curriculum Assessment) (27).
Proposed Mechanism for applying the transfer
Essex supports the retention of the existing settlement (32), together with a mechanism for 2012-13 to work alongside this which will redistribute funding between authorities to better reflect the number of pupils in Academies in each local authority. In order to provide those local authorities with large numbers of pupils attending Academies financial stability we will though cap the amount to be transferred at the level of the amount topsliced from formula grant in 2012-13.
Transfer calculation and arrangements for 2011-12 financial year
Essex supports the adoption of a no change approach for 2011-12; the topslices of formula grant for 2011 -12 announced previously will remain unchanged (39).
Transfer calculation and arrangements for 2012-13 financial year
Essex is concerned on the LA LACSEG per pupil rates as these still appear to be far greater than the relevant amount of funding spent in these areas (47).
Detailed mechanism for managing the transfer for 2012-13 financial year
Essex generally supports the methodology and mechanism for the transfer of funds for 2012-13, though has some concerns on the certainty of funding and how the DfE will determine LA LACSEG rates before 2012-13 budgets and S251 are published (50).
Proposals for the recoupment of DSG LACSEG in 2012-13
Essex agrees with the proposals to simplify the recoupment process whereby authorities have to complete a separate pro-forma for each Academy and the continuing opportunity for local authorities to be able to request exclusions from recoupment, and the continuation of separate rates for primary, secondary and special schools. (53).
Contingencies
Essex agrees that certain budgets should be displayed on the correct S251 line and not hidden under contingency budgets; however the LA cannot support the proposals to include the items listed under paragraph (60)(funding for additional pupil growth, behaviour/hard to place pupils, extended services, school support/intervention/schools causing concern, non delegated mainstreamed grants, NQT’s and AST’s)as LACSEG affected contingencies. These items are shown in contingencies because the incidence of use does not fall into a formulaic distribution such as the simple pupil number pro rata mechanism as per the LACSEG calculator.
A good example of this is the funding for additional pupil number growth (60), which is allocated to schools and academies in Essex where the increase number of pupils in September exceeds a threshold. The distribution of these funds does not therefore apply to all schools.
*The figures shown in brackets ( ) refer to the paragraph number in the DfE’s ‘Consultation on the Proposed Decision on the Calculation and Recovery Arrangements for the Academies Funding Transfer for 2011-12 and 2012-13’.