Schools Budgets 2022-23 Consultation

Overview

We are launching the council’s consultation with school leaders about the local funding proposals for all our mainstream schools and academies – note that this does not include funding proposals for early years, about which we will consult separately when the government publishes its early years funding settlement.

The closing date for responses is Tuesday 30 November 2021. The context for funding for 2022/23 is the government’s announcement In 2019 that over the period 2020/21 to 2022/23 the national schools budget would rise from £45.1bn to £52.2bn. Thus 2022/23 will be the final year of this period and the July 2021 funding announcement confirmed that the previously announced increase is to be implemented in 2022/23.

In West Northamptonshire, we aspire to ‘mirror’ the national funding formula for local authorities and schools, which gives an indication of what the government would fund schools through its ‘hard’ formula.

Please note that the council is also consulting on two local policies due to a change from previously held county council policies – relating to permanent exclusion clawback and split site funding. The former change brings West Northants into line with regulations, and council officers have advised schools forum members that we must comply and therefore must agree the change.

All school leaders should ensure they are familiar with the proposed change, which will increase the cost of a permanent exclusion to a school’s budget in most cases. Your views are important as they will be summarised and reported to our schools forum members before its members vote on the funding formula proposed in the consultation.

Please note that this does not include funding proposals for early years, about which we will consult separately when the government publishes its early years funding settlement.

• Schools Budget Consultation 2022-23 (Word 142KB)
• Appendix A – Indicative Financial Modelling of 2022-23 Budgets (Excel 125KB)

For more details please view our Schools and Education Budget Information webpage.