Hammersmith and Fulham nursery schools are facing potential closures due to increasing financial pressures, the Schools Forum heard on Tuesday. The forum met to discuss the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) outturn for 2024/25 and the early years budget for 2025/26, revealing a sector struggling with constrained funding and rising demand.
Michele Barrett, representing Randolph Beresford / Vanessa Nursery, warned that many maintained nursery schools are looking at closures within the next year or so if no change was in place.
She highlighted that these schools are operating with limited SEND funding, as the majority of the budget is allocated to the private, voluntary, and independent (PVI) sector and childminders.
The Public Reports Pack presented to the forum noted constrained funding growth for 3 and 4-year-olds, with only a small increase per hour. However, maintained nursery schools are set to receive a more significant hourly increase. The total central spend is proposed at £0.79m, with early intervention services and outreach to be delivered via Hammersmith and Fulham maintained nursery schools through an increase in the lump sum budget provision within the 3 and 4-year-old budget model.
Jane Gleasure, representing Little People, Early Years, voiced concerns about the disadvantage faced by PVI providers compared to maintained schools and nursery schools. She cited pressure from inflation and challenges to early years intervention provision in the borough and expressed a desire to be involved in decisions regarding fund distribution between the PVI and maintained sectors.
The Schools Forum also discussed the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) outturn for 2024/25. The Public Reports Pack noted that many local authorities in England have DSG deficits, often due to pressures on their high needs budgets. The report pack stated that there was a nil variance in the schools block after £0.742m support to the high needs block expenditure.
The summary of high needs block expenditure showed a baseline overspend of £5.254m before mitigations, reduced to £0.963m after mitigations. These mitigations included a £1.179m schools block transfer and £0.960m Safety Valve Funding. The Safety Valve agreement is a program between the Department for Education (DfE) and individual local authorities who are experiencing the largest pressures on their high needs budgets. A final grant receipt of £0.960m under the Safety Valve agreement was received in 2024/25 taking the total and final funding received through this mechanism to £20.5m over the period of the Safety Valve agreement. The Public Reports Pack stated that the high needs block is seeing continued pressures from sustained demand, increasing complexity of needs and inflationary impacts.
The Schools Forum approved the proposed deployment of the central budget and noted the proposed 2025/26 Early Year budget across all entitlements, including the revised base rates, deprivation, and local formulas.