6 July 2017 weekly update

Dear Colleagues

Provisional Key Stage 2 Results

The provisional Key Stage 2 results in 2017 show improved attainment across all subjects compared to 2016. Kent has performed well above the emerging national average for the majority of indicators, apart from mathematics which is just above the national average and Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling which is just below the national average.

64.4% of Kent pupils attained the expected standard in Reading, Writing and Mathematics combined. This compares well with the emerging national figure of 61% and continues the positive upward trend in Kent for attainment at the end of Key Stage 2.

74% of pupils attained the expected standard in Reading, 80% in writing and 76% in mathematics. These results compare favourably with the provisional national results, which are: 71% in Reading, 76% in writing and 75% in mathematics.

In Kent, 76% of pupils attained the expected standard in Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling compared to 77% nationally.

Kent has been particularly successful in increasing the proportion of pupils attaining greater depth in reading (27%), writing (19%) and mathematics (22%) in 2017. The improvement against these indicators is higher than that found nationally, and the outcomes are above the national averages for Reading and Writing.

Congratulations to all the schools that have achieved improved results this year. We will update the summary of results as the national data becomes more complete.

High Needs Funding

The 8 June e-bulletin gave an update on the progress of our major review of High Needs funding as well as useful background information behind the High Needs process and an update on numbers of pupils and costs. Even before we have the final outcomes of the review this bulletin explains that it is necessary to introduce immediate in-year changes from September 2017 to address the significant financial pressure, which continues to increase.

On 30 June, the Schools’ Funding Forum received an update on both the Dedicated Schools Grant position and High Needs funding. Overall the position in Kent is a serious cause for concern. The DSG reserve is now fully depleted, largely due to the steep increase in spend on High Needs funding, which means we no longer have any funding to meet unexpected in year pressures. Since my Headteacher briefings the High Needs applications have continued to increase, and if this trend were to continue into the new school year we would see the number of funded High Needs pupils increase to about 3000, and our budget of £23 million overspend by about another £7 million. As the numbers continue to exceed all predictions and the level of applications from mainstream schools shows no signs of abating, we have no option but to apply some restraint from September this year.

At the School Funding Forum we spent over two hours discussing these issues in great detail, which was very useful and informative. The High Needs funding review will enable us to make changes from the 1 April 2018, which will result in a more affordable system that is in line with the funding received from Government. However, based on the latest forecast of High Needs funded pupils, we must take some immediate action and implement in-year changes from 1 September 2017. We cannot afford to maintain the status quo for the next 9 months.

We are very aware, from our discussions with the Forum, that any in-year changes should not introduce instability in school budgets. Therefore the changes that we are introducing, which have been designed to allow schools time to plan, are as follows:

1. We will be reducing by 30% the amount of funding paid for any new applications once they have been agreed - please note that we will not be applying this reduction to any re-applications in respect of funding already in place.
2. We will no longer be backdating funding to the date the application was originally submitted when the application is deferred due to further information requirements.
3. We will be deferring the start date for all new approved applications so that they commence from 1 December 2017.

One option discussed with the Forum was to increase the £23m budget held by the Local Authority for Mainstream High Needs, by taking more money from schools’ formula funding. The Forum were very clear that they did not support a further transfer of funding from school budgets into High Needs as they recognised the impact this would have on all schools at a time of seven consecutive years of no funding increases for inflationary pressures. This means therefore that some difficult decisions have to be taken around our existing use of the High Needs funding that we receive.

This is not good news and while I am sorry that we have had to take this step I hope colleagues will understand the urgent need to contain this spending. Clearly we look to the review to identify the longer term proposals for how we need to make changes to High Needs Funding for the future.

Patrick Leeson
Corporate Director
Children, Young People and Education