Growth funds
The growth fund has been created by the Authority to support schools which are required to provide extra places to meet basic need within the county, including pre-opening and reorganisation costs. The growth fund may not be used to support schools in financial difficulty.
The growth fund is ring-fenced so that it is only used for the purposes of supporting growth in pre-16 pupil numbers to meet basic need, to support additional classes needed to meet the infant class size regulation and to meet the costs of necessary new schools. These will include the lead-in costs, post start-up costs and any diseconomy of scale costs.
Criteria have been set in agreement with Schools Forum and the Education & Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and the fund is for the benefit of both maintained schools and academies.
Falling rolls fund
The national changes made in 2013-14 are intentionally centred on the number and characteristics of pupils rather than the circumstances of schools, but a pupil-led system can cause difficulties where local authorities identify that number of places required will increase in the near future and therefore want to ensure that required schools remain open and viable in the short term.