PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Schools: Finance (27 March 2018)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which local authorities have (a) been granted permission to move (i) up to 0.5%, or (ii) in excess of 0.5% of Schools Block funding to High Needs Block funding, (b) been denied permission to move Schools Block funding to High Needs Block funding and (c) made a request to move Schools Block funding to High Needs Block funding but no decision has yet been made; and what criteria his Department uses to determine those applications.

Asked by:
Mike Kane (Labour)

For the funding year 2018 to 2019, the schools block of the Dedicated Schools Grant is ring-fenced and local authorities can only transfer up to 0.5 per cent of their schools block funding to another block, if they have the approval of their schools forum. Local authorities were only required to submit a request to my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State if they wished to transfer more than 0.5 per cent out of the schools block, and/or if they did not receive support from the schools forum.

Decisions have been made on 27 requests, the attached table details the outcome of each request, categorised by the percentage transfer. There are no outstanding requests to transfer funding from the schools block to the high needs block.

Each request was assessed against the factors published in paragraph 122 of the schools revenue funding 2018 to 2019 operational guide available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pre-16-schools-funding-guidance-for-2018-to-2019. Decisions were made based on the evidence provided by the local authority for each element of their disapplication request.

Answered by:
Nadhim Zahawi (Conservative)
16 April 2018