North East councils top-slice school budgets to make up for loss of ESG
Three North East local authorities were among 61 councils who top-sliced school budgets to make up for the loss of the education services grant (ESG).
The information was revealed last week by Schools Minister Nick Gibb in response to a Parliamentary Question which showed Newcastle upon Tyne, Hartlepool and Redcar & Cleveland councils amongst those taking money from school funding.
Local authorities must seek the permission of the schools forum for top-slicing, though Ministers are able to overrule the latter’s decision should the local authority appeal. SCHOOLS NorthEast is aware that this occurred when Hartlepool Borough Council’s request was refused by the schools forum.
The ESG previously covered both “retained” duties, which apply to both academies and maintained schools, covering duties such as school place planning, and “general” duties that apply only to local authority maintained schools and encompass duties such as legal costs and improvement services.
The former has been replaced in the form of a “central school services block” in the dedicated schools grant but the latter is no longer paid by the Department. Councils that have not requested the money from schools will still be required to fund it themselves as these are statutory duties which cannot be charged to the Schools Block.
Councils stopped receiving the ESG in September and the 2018-19 financial year is the first without transitional funding. At the time the DfE insisted it had taken the “difficult decision” to cut the ESG “in order to protect the core schools budget”.