Special Educational Needs: Finance
(asked on 11th March 2022) - View Source
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which local authorities applied to his Department for permission to transfer funding from the school's block to the high needs block within the Dedicated Schools Grant for the financial years 2021-22 and 2022-23; and what the outcomes of those applications were.
The dedicated schools grant (DSG) conditions of grant permit local authorities to transfer 0.5% or below of their schools block funding, with the consent of their schools forum. Where the schools forum does not agree, or the transfer is above 0.5%, the local authority can apply to my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, to disapply the conditions of grant. This is known as a disapplication request.
In the 2021/22 financial year, the department received 16 block movement disapplication requests. One of these was withdrawn before a decision was made.
The table below details the further 15 requests, the name of the local authority, the amount of transfer requested in both percentage and cash, and the final decision. To note, the table below represents what was approved. Actual amounts transferred may differ.
Local Authority Name | Amount as a % of the schools block | Amount £ | Decision |
Swindon | 0.12% | £191,100 | Rejected |
West Sussex | 0.50% | £2,500,000 | Rejected |
Oxfordshire | 0.50% | £2,000,000 | Rejected |
Surrey | 0.50% | £3,400,000 | Rejected |
Cheshire East | 0.50% | £1,100,000 | Rejected |
Cambridgeshire | 1.00% | £3,800,000 | Rejected |
Dudley | 1.00% | £2,180,000 | Rejected |
Barnsley | 1.00% | £1,633,650 | Approved |
Kent | 1.00% | £12,266,780 | Approved |
BCP* | 1.10% | £2,406,161 | Rejected (Forum agreed 0.50%) |
Southwark | 1.20% | £3,100,000 | Approved |
South Gloucestershire | 1.30% | £2,200,000 | Approved |
Norfolk | 1.50% | £8,000,000 | Rejected (Forum agreed 0.50%) |
Rotherham | 1.50% | £3,000,000 | Approved |
Hillingdon | 2.30% | £5,500,000 | Rejected |
In the 2022/23 financial year, the department received 19 block movement disapplication requests. Six of these were withdrawn before a decision was made. The table below details the further 13 requests, the name of the local authority, the amount of transfer requested in both percentage and cash, and the final decision. To note, the table below represents what was approved. Actual amounts transferred may differ.
Local Authority Name | Amount as a % of the schools block | Amount £ | Decision |
Leicestershire | 0.50% | £2,300,000 | Rejected |
Staffordshire | 0.50% | £2,800,000 | Rejected |
Wokingham | 0.50% | £630,000 | Rejected |
Cheshire East | 0.50% | £1,200,000 | Rejected |
Oxfordshire | 0.50% | £1,600,000 | Rejected |
West Northamptonshire | 0.69% | £2,100,000 | Approved |
Merton | 0.70% | £1,000,000 | Approved |
Halton | 1.00% | £1,017,926 | Approved |
Kent | 1.00% | £10,000,000 | Approved |
Barnsley | 1.00% | £1,697,773 | Approved |
South Gloucestershire | 1.18% | £2,200,000 | Approved |
Norfolk | 1.50% | £8,473,445 | Approved |
Rotherham | 1.50% | £3,235,707 | Approved |
*BCP = Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole