Financial Budget, procedures and Expenditure

High Needs Block

1. Please provide the monetary value of the Council’s High Needs Block allocation from the government each financial year for 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19.

Please refer to published data on the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) website for Devon County Council’s HNB settlement values.  Links provided below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2018-to-2019

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2017-to-2018

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2016-to-2017

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-dsg-2015-to-2016

 Forecast 2018/19 figures for questions 2-5 should be those forecast at the start of the financial year (e.g. as part of annual budget-setting), not forecasts produced by in-year revenue monitoring.

2. The monetary value of the council’s actual High Needs Block expenditure each financial year for 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18 and forecast for 2018/19.

2018/19 – £63.323 millions

2017/18 – £63.834 millions

2016/17 – please see: https://www.devon.gov.uk/accesstoinformation/information_request/school-funding-and-expenditure

2015/16 – please see: https://www.devon.gov.uk/accesstoinformation/information_request/school-funding-and-expenditure

3. The monetary value of the Council’s overspend or underspend (please specify) on its High Needs Block each financial year for 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18 and forecast for 2018/19.

2018/19 – £0 million

2017/18 – £2.05 million overspent adjusting for Maintained Special Schools ring fenced balances.

2016/17 – £3.9 million over spent adjusting for Maintained Special Schools ring fenced balances. Note: budget includes £892,000 carry forward from 2015/16.

2015/16 – £0.7 million under spent adjusting for Maintained Special Schools ring fenced balances. Note: budget included £4.97m carry forward from 2014/15.

4. The monetary value of transfers (a) to the council’s High Needs expenditure from other parts of the council’s DSG allocation, and (b) from the council’s High Needs Block allocation to other parts of the council’s DSG expenditure, each year for 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18 and forecast for 2018/19.

2018/19:

a) £0 million

b) The HNB allocation is used entirely for High needs commitments and was budgeted to be fully spent.

2017/18:

a) £4.010 million from Schools and Early Years block.

b) The HNB allocation is used entirely for High needs commitments and was fully spent.

2016/17

a) £1.500millions from Schools block.

b) The HNB allocation is used entirely for High needs commitments and was fully spent.

2015/16

a) £1.176millions from Schools block and Early Years block.

b) The HNB allocation is used entirely for High needs commitments and was fully spent.

5. The monetary value of the council’s remaining schools reserve at the end of each financial year for 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18 and forecast for 2018/19. Please specify when a provided figure represents the schools reserve in deficit.

The Council’s remaining schools reserves for 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18 are included in the audited statement of accounts along with the Council’s other reserves and can be found on page 52, Note 9 of the Statement of Accounts 2016/17 (which include the previous year 2015/16) and page 51, Note 10 of the Statement of Accounts 2017/18.  All the above can be found via the following web page:- https://www.devon.gov.uk/finance-and-budget/audit-and-inspection/

The Council does not hold the data for 2018/19 as this data is centrally managed within individual schools.

6. Any proposals the council has adopted or is considering adopting to reduce (or limit increases in) its High Needs expenditure in 2017/18 or 2018/19, including (but not limited to) mitigating action to tackle forecast High Needs Block overspends in 2018/19, or changes to eligibility for or provision or staffing of special needs education, or restrictions to eligibility for or provision of special needs education transport services.

Please refer to the Devon Education Forum minutes for the periods in question.  These are available on our web pages via the below link:-

Browse meetings – Devon Education Forum

Reserves

7. The monetary value of the council’s remaining unallocated financial reserves (excluding schools reserves) at the end of each financial year for 2015/16, 2016/17, and 2017/18.

Please see response to question 8 below

8. The combined monetary value of the council’s remaining allocated financial reserves (excluding schools reserves) at the end of each financial year for 2015/16, 2016/17, and 2017/18.

Answers to Questions 7 and 8 above can be found on page 52, Note 9 of the Statement of Accounts 2016/17 (which include the previous year 2015/16) and page 51, Note 10 of the Statement of Accounts 2017/18 which can be found on the following webpage

https://www.devon.gov.uk/finance-and-budget/audit-and-inspection/

The figures for the following questions 9 and 10 should factor in planned savings on council expenditure – i.e. they should not simply forecast a reduction in reserves equivalent to the predicted gap between income and expenditure before the effect of planned savings.

As for questions 2-5, the forecasts in questions 9 and 10 should be those made as part of the council’s annual budget setting and/or medium term financial plan, rather than a reflection of 2018/19 in-year revenue monitoring.

9. The forecast monetary value (if such forecasts exist) of the council’s remaining unallocated financial reserves (excluding schools reserves) at the end of each financial year for 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21.

Please see answer to question 10 below

10. The forecast combined monetary value (if such forecasts exist) of the council’s remaining allocated financial reserves (excluding schools reserves) at the end of each financial year for 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21.

For questions 9 and 10, projections of reserves in future years can be found on page 106 of the Council’s Budget for 2018/19:

This budget book and previous years’ budget books can be found on the Council’s webpage – link provided below:

https://www.devon.gov.uk/finance-and-budget/budgets/


Outturn

11. The monetary value of the council’s final outturn position (excluding DSG) each financial year for 2015/16, 2016/17, and 2017/18 (i.e overspend, underspend or balanced spend – plus monetary value). The figures provided should show each year’s outturn *prior to drawdowns from reserves that were not included in the planned annual budget* – in other words, not simply a balanced budget position because the council raided its reserves at the last minute.

The Council’s outturn position is reported in published Cabinet papers (June 2016, June 2017 and May 2018)

Pages 9 and 10 of the Revenue and Capital Outturn 2017/18 available via the below link:

https://www.devon.gov.uk/finance-and-budget/budgets/ (Cabinet 16 May 2018)

Pages 8 and 9 of the Revenue and Capital Outturn 2016/17 available via the below link:

https://www.devon.gov.uk/finance-and-budget/budgets/ (Cabinet 14 June 2017)

Pages 8 and 9 of the Revenue and Capital Outturn 2015/16 available via the below link:

https://www.devon.gov.uk/finance-and-budget/budgets/ (Cabinet 8 June 2016)

12. Please list the budgeted savings measures that did not achieve their savings target in 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18, categorised by directorate – for each savings measure, please state the budgeted savings target and the actual saving achieved that year.

Please refer to the Outturn statements provided in answer to Q11 above.