Agenda item

NB presented a high level summary of the 2022/23 DSG outturn.  He noted that the LA had received £10.8 million in payment from the DfE as part of safety valve agreement. The deficit at the beginning of 2022-23 was £25.5 million, and the DfE has already written off £10.8 million of this by providing additional cash to the local authority. This means that the cumulative deficit at the end of 22-23 is £14.8 million with an actual in year deficit of almost £97k. However, there was still an overspend of about £800,000 in the high needs block last year, which was offset by an underspend in the schools and Early years blocks. 

The Chair asked whether the underspend in the schools block was related to the growth fund;  NH confirmed this was the unneeded contingency. The Chair noted that underspend in the Growth Fund normally happens every year because contingency is not used;  the underspend is then rolled forward to form part of the following year’s growth fund.  NB confirmed that this was correct.

PC acknowledged that Forum members are aware of the pain that the safety valve has caused in terms of difficult decisions and to see the impact of that in terms of £10.8 million coming in and starting to ‘see the tide turning’ is very pleasing. 

NB confirmed he would bring further detail to the next meeting in relation to the 4 DSG blocks and where the underspend and overspends were.