North Yorkshire County Council

 

Executive

 

20 September 2022

 

Ukrainian Refugee (Education) Grant Distribution

 

Report of the Corporate Director – Children and Young People’s Services

 

1.0

Purpose of Report 

 

1.1

 

 

 

 

1.2

This report lays out the background and particulars of the Ukrainian Refugee (Educational) Grant, it provides details of the grant and the proposed allocation of the grant between North Yorkshire County Council and various educational establishments who have provided places to Ukrainian Refugee children housed within North Yorkshire.

 

The report seeks approval from the Executive on the proposed spending laid out in the report.

 

 

2.0        Background              

 

2.1       The Ukrainian Refugee (Education) Grant 2022-23, provided by the Secretary of State for Education is for the provision by local authorities of education services for children from families arriving from Ukraine under the “Home for Ukraine” scheme.

 

2.2       As at the 31st May 2022, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) had recorded 198 children of ages 2 to 18 coming to reside in North Yorkshire under the “Homes for Ukraine” scheme. Since the 31st May 2022, an additional 68 children have been registered.

 

2.3       Any Ukrainian Refugees who entered the United Kingdom under the Ukraine Family Scheme are not eligible; the DfE have indicated that funding for these children should be met through existing funding streams.

 

2.4       The funding has been set by central government as the following rates:

 

2.5      The conditions of the grant from the DfE are laid out in Appendix 1.

 

3.0       Issues                               

 

3.1       The Department for Education (DfE) has issued the terms of the grant for the Ukrainian Refugee (Education) Grant to give general guidance around the types of expenditure the grant can be used for, but the decision on the usage within that framework is the responsibility of each Local Authority.

 

3.2       The constitution requires that Executive approval is given to the proposed spending plan laid out in the next section.

 

 

4.0       Financial Implications                     

 

4.1       Allocated Funding - The Department for Education (DfE) have confirmed they will make the following allocations of funding:

·      100% of funding for arrivals prior to 31st May 2022

·      75% of funding for arrivals from 1st June 2022 to 31st August 2022

·      50% of funding for arrivals from 1st September 2022 to 30th November 2022

·      25% of funding for arrivals from 1st December 2022 to 28th February 2023

 

4.2         Payments will be received by NYCC as follows:

·      Payment 1 (31st August 2022) – 25% of the applicable grant for all arrivals prior to the 31st May 2022

·      Payment 2 (date tbc) – 75% of the applicable grant for all arrivals prior to the 31st May 2022 + 100% of applicable grant for arrivals from 1st June 2022 to 31st August 2022

4.3         Based on the rates given in section 2.4, and the number of children on the DLUHC return, the anticipated payment from the DfE is estimate to be c. £1,736k. (see Appendix A for breakdown).

 

4.4         The initial payment has been confirmed as £345,271, and payment was made on the 31st August 2022 to the local authority. As per section 2.3, there is no additional funding available for children arriving under the Ukraine Family scheme.

 

4.5       Proposal for Allocation

 

4.6       Educational Establishments

 

4.7         Initial fixed contribution per child of £250 – it is felt that there will have been initial upfront cost pressures for schools in trying to assess each new child on their roll, so the fixed fee per child is intended to contribute towards some of the staffing time to undertake these.

 

4.8         Flexible contribution per term – the second element of the payment to schools is a contribution per term the child attends the school. This is proposed to be a third of the remaining funding per child after an administration deduction and the initial fixed contribution.

 

4.9         The three termly payments would be for Summer Term 2022, Autumn Term 2022 and Spring Term 2023. This is the general period that the DfE are providing funding for; after this period, it is expected that additional children will have been picked up in the October census and included in the funding formula.

 

4.10       Provision for Nurseries – the payment for nursery places for 2, 3 and 4 years olds is proposed to be as per the hourly rate paid to establishments in North Yorkshire. If the child is in childcare for 15 hours, then there is enough funding within the £3,000 allocated per child.

 

4.11     North Yorkshire County Council Internal costs

 

4.12       Administration costs

4.13    It is proposed to make a deduction for North Yorkshire County Council administration costs of 5%; this is calculated at c.£70-85k depending on the final number of arrivals.

 

4.14       The English as an Additional Language (EAL) Team have been working to ensure all the children are within an appropriate educational setting, co-ordinating school visits and helping schools find the correct resources. It is intended to hire two additional sessional staff to support the team with Ukrainian refugees, costing up to £50k.

 

4.15       Remaining funding

 

4.16       In the terms of grant from the DfE, the use of the funding can run past the end of the financial year (31st March 2023), so long as the funds are still used for the provision of education and childcare for children who are part of the “Homes for Ukraine” scheme.

 

4.17       It is proposed that the Corporate Director – Children and Young People’s Services, in consultation with the Corporate Director – Strategic Resources, is provided with delegated responsibility to allocate any surplus funding from the above proposals to activities they deem to be within the terms of the grant. An example of areas where additional funding could be utilised would be: additional funding requirements for any Ukrainian pupils assessed as requiring additional needs or special educational needs or disabilities, or reviewing the level of administration costs.

 

 

5.0       Legal Implications                            

 

5.1       There are no legal implications identified for this report.

 

 

6.0       Equalities Implications                                

 

6.1       An initial equality impact assessment screening form has been completed to determine the relevance of equality to the proposed funding arrangement. No potential for adverse impact has been identified and the grant must be allocated to education and early years providers in line with the grant terms and conditions. As a result, a full Equalities Impact Assessment would not be appropriate or proportionate, although there will continue to be regard to equalities implications during the implementation of the proposals.

 

 7.0

Recommendation(s)    

 

 

(i) Executive are asked to approve the proposed payment allocations paid out in section 4.

 

(ii) Executive are asked to delegate responsibility to the Corporate Director – Children and Young People’s Service in consultation with the Corporate Director – Strategic Resources to determine the distribution of any surplus funding as appropriate, in line with the terms of the grant. 

 

 

Stuart Carlton

Corporate Director – Children and Young People’s Services

County Hall

Northallerton

20 September 2022

 

Report Author –                      Howard Emmett

Presenter of Report –             Howard Emmett

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appendices:

 

Appendix 1 - Conditions of Grant:

The funding must only be used for the provision of education and childcare for children ages 2 to 18 who have entered via the Homes for Ukraine visa route, for example:

·       to provide a place for 2, 3 and 4-year-olds accessing the 2-year-old, universal or 30 hours entitlements

·       the provision of a suitable place for all other children up to the age of 18 (including time for staff resource and travel)

·       funding placement of larger clusters of children into schools and early years settings, including the costs of additional and specialist teaching, non-teaching and administrative staff

·       providing suitable travel arrangements, where necessary, to facilitate a child’s attendance at school or suitable education setting

·       the provision of specialist and bespoke services, such as support for children with additional needs, and resources (this may include education materials for schools)

·       free school meals and school uniform (including school bags, provisions for example, water bottles, etc.)

·       to provide access to extra-curricular activities for example, sports

·       on community services whose provision benefits the children

·       any other reasonable costs associated with the provision of education and childcare for the children.

The local authority can pool any amount of funding to fund activities that will benefit a group or all of the authority’s children received via the Homes for Ukraine visa route.

 

 

Appendix 2 - Anticipated Funding Allocation Summary

 

 

 

 

Appendix 3 - Possible Allocation of Funds to Schools