Decision details

That the local authority should submit a disapplication request to the Secretary of State for Education to de-delegate funding from LA maintained schools in 2022-23 for core school improvement activities.

In November 2021, the Department for Education (DfE) outlined proposals in the “Reforming how local authorities’ school improvement functions are funded” consultation document. The proposals outlined that the existing School Improvement Monitoring and Brokering Grant would be reduced by 50% from April 2022 and would be reduced by 100% by April 2023. The consultation also proposed that finance regulations would be amended to enable local authorities to seek the de-delegation of funding from LA maintained schools to continue to fund core statutory school improvement functions.

On 16th December 2021, the North Yorkshire Schools Forum considered an “in principle” decision for the de-delegation of funding from maintained school budgets for 2022-23 given that the DfE had not confirmed at that time whether the proposals would be implemented for April 2022. However, Schools Forum did not reach a consensus on the proposal and, therefore, de-delegation was not approved. On 11th January 2022, the DfE confirmed their intention to implement the consultation proposals.

There is insufficient time to respond to the decision to implement a funding reduction with only two months’ notice. Reforming the LA’s school improvement core offer and/or undertaking steps to reduce the costs in the team would not be possible in the available timescale. As a consequence, the local authority is seeking to submit a disapplication request to the Secretary of State for Education to set aside the Schools Forum decision and allow the local authority to de-delegate funding, equivalent to the anticipated 50% reduction in the School Improvement Monitoring and Brokering Grant, in 2022-23.

This decision was taken under Rule 16 special urgency and call in exemptions procedures due to the urgency in submitting a disapplication request to the Secretary of State.