Dear Editor,
I asked earlier this week: Is anyone else questioning the allocation of the dedicated schools grant, due to be ratified at next week’s CE’s Children & Families Committee? That meeting was held – and the answer is no.
Just to clarify the situation for everyone, the grant money has been allocated at three different rates based on deprivation factors.
So, IDACI (Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index) based on the postcode of each child in the school secures the funding, not the level of need of children within the schools.
This together with Local Fair Funding means there is a difference in funding of between £1,440 and £3,600 per pupil.
If you factor in the average number of pupils at our Cheshire East High Schools is around 1000, we can see we’re talking about significant funding.
The amounts of money allocated are £5,750 or £7,190 or £9,350 per pupil.
Some of our schools are losing a great deal of money.
The committee were advised that the issues around the Dedicated Schools Grant allocations were due to:
a] a lack of engagement in the process by the schools
b] that the concerns will be addressed at a briefing for schools and councillors sometime after today. After the decision has been ratified
As a Conservative administration we lobbied government to try to address the decades of low Cheshire Dedicated Schools Grant allocation but that proactive lobbying seems to have evaporated.
We worked hard with our officers and teachers to find the most equitable way of allocating the DSG.
Cheshire East can do better, we know, we did.
Yours,
Cllr Mrs Liz Wardlaw
Odd Rode Ward
Cheshire East
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