A proposed increase of up to just 6p on the hourly rate of funding for nurseries will “impede” some from operating, a council report revealed.
The planned increase – just 5p an hour for three-year-olds and 6p an hour for two-year-olds – was announced in December following a consultation carried out by the Department for Education.
According to the report, produced for a meeting of Knowsley’s school’s forum, the proposed funding levels “will not be sufficient for some providers to meet the rising utility and workforce costs and could impede service delivery.”
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Representing a 1% increase in funding, the report notes that the hourly rates for Knowsley are below the national average and would ultimately “not be beneficial” for the borough or “ideal” given the pressures nursery providers are facing.
Members of Knowsley Schools forum met yesterday, January 19, to discuss the budget-setting process for next year.
The report, which sets out the main aspects of the budget and what funding will be provided by the central government revealed the borough has been allocated a £2.8m increase in schools block funding from the previous year.
A 5% increase in pupil premium – which is funding provided for disadvantaged pupils – will mean an extra £70 for pupils in receipt of free school meals and an additional £120 for pupils in care or being looked after by the local authority.
Funding for high needs pupils has seen a 5% increase, with extra measures from the autumn statement bringing that figure up to more like 9%. This extra £3m funding, according to the report “goes some way to help manage the increasing cost pressures in this area, but there are still significant inflationary pressures to be addressed.”
In addition, finance manager Paula Deegan said at Thursday’s Knowsley Schools Forum meeting that an already existing £6m deficit would have to be carried over into the following year as there was insufficient funding being provided to tackle it.
The pot of money set aside for centralised functions for schools and academies, which includes services such as disabled children’s short breaks, safeguarding boards and community information networks has been reduced by around 1%.
Overall, there is an additional £10m available as part of next year’s school budget – with the council planning to find savings within the centralised function to manage the decrease in funding.
While welcoming the funding increases, the report notes they “do not provide sufficient resources to address the wide range of unprecedented financial pressures being faced by Schools and Local Authorities” – which includes an increase in teacher’s pay, inflation and rising energy costs.
As a result, the council expects to see some schools finding themselves running deficits or increased deficits “which will inevitably have a highly detrimental impact on the ability of schools to sustain education provision”
Discussing the report during a remote meeting of Knowsley’s schools forum on Thursday, secondary school representative Rob Alcock said he was “concerned” at the low increase in budgets for early years provision in particular.
He added: “It would be interesting to see with the nurseries and private sectors just what impact that is going to have.”
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