Agenda and minutes

Gary Holmes

None.

Last meeting held on 24 September 2015 (for confirmation)

Tracy Rees was not marked as present on the minutes of the meeting dated 24 September 2015.  Subject to that being amended, the minutes were agreed as a correct record.

The work programme for the next meeting of the Forum was noted, with the addition of an item on Central Expenditure for the January meeting.

Presentation by Catherine Smith, Early Years Programme Manager

Catherine Smith, Early Years Programmes Manager, gave a presentation on free early education for 2 year olds, highlighting the following:

(a)  between 50-60% of the population in Nottingham are eligible for 15 free hours of childcare;

(b)  more creative methods of contacting families, and raising awareness of the 2 year old offer are being looked at;

(c)  whilst there are plenty of childcare places across the City, Bilborough, Aspley and Clifton South wards remain a concern, due to their high concentration of 2 year olds.  These wards are being worked with closely and have been prioritised for expansion by the Early Years team;

Following questions from members of the forum, the information below was provided:

(d)  the raising of capacity of Children’s Centres started a number of years ago, using potential numbers as a guide;

(e)  legislation recently changed to allow schools to take 2 year olds without registering with OFSTED.  Schools now have to lower their age range;

(f)  childcare cannot be opened randomly in an area where there is a lot of ‘stock’ (other childcare providers) in that area already;

(g)  2 year old funding of £4.88 an hour is received and passed on in full to providers.  It was difficult to come to a figure that pleased all, as there were some that offered £15 an hour, and some that offered as low as £2 an hour.  The figure of £4.88 ensures that there is money in the budget to pay when participation increases;

(h)  there is an internal target of having 80% of 2 year olds take up this funding.  Every term there will be some level of increase.  In comparison, the take-up for nursery funding for 3 and 4 year olds is 100%;

(i)  there are five schools within the City taking 2 year olds.  These are Milford Academy, Djanogly Northgate, Sycamore, Nottingham Nursery and Snape Wood;

(j)  some schools already have space at their sites to accommodate extra capacity.  There is capital funding for three years – what remains of this is targeted at Bilborough, Aspley and Clifton South wards.  Currently, there is £150,000 remaining, with £50,000 for each of the aforementioned wards;

(k)  further information can be found on the early years section of the schools website;

RESOLVED to note the presentation.

Report of the Directors of Education

Janine Walker, Service Manager for SEN, presented the consultation on 2016/17 planned places for pupils with Special Educational Needs, highlighting the following points:

(a)  NUSA (Nottingham University Samworth Academy) hosts secondary provision, which means that some younger people are staying within Nottingham rather than going out to Derby;

(b)  a number of Denewood pupils are likely to move to Westbury School;

(c)  Woodlands School is looking to increase its in-year places;

(d)  commissioning out at a higher cost would be needed if places cannot be bought at schools;

(e)  since 2010 special schools places have been increased.  The expansion of the special school estate has been the subject of three feasibility studies.  It is hoped that at least one of these studies will be agreed;

Following questions from attendees, the following points were raised:

(f)  the three feasibility studies are looking at:

  i)  increasing Westbury school by 60 places (doubling the size of the school)

  ii)  building at Oakfield School to give 48 extra places

  iii)  building at Nethergate School to give an additional 40 places.

  If all of the above schemes were approved, this would certainly give schools some more capacity, but further conversations between the Local Authority (LA) and schools would need to take place.  There is no guarantee that all three schemes will get approved.

  The Westbury scheme has been placed as the highest priority;

(g)  there is lots of data and projections that need to be built into an overall plan for school capacity.  More work is required to determine how best to know which young people need that specialist provision;

RESOLVED to note the potential financial implications for the 2016/17 and 2017/18 budgets.

Report of the Director of Education

Anna White, Strategic Director at the Nottingham City Secondary Education Partnership (NCSEP), presented the report on Secondary Fair Access – review of funding model pilot and recommendations for future budget, highlighting the following points:

(a)  NCSEP has been running the fair access programme for the last three years.  To try and tackle the barriers that younger pupils were encountering, an additional £200,000 has been allocated.  Approximately 180 students come through the fair access programme, and their needs are becoming increasingly more complex;

(b)  100% of younger pupils coming through the fair access programme are now fully tracked.  There has been work around securing school places for all of these pupils, within a 10 day timeframe.  77% of pupils received places within the timeframe set last year;

(c)  analysis showed that the fair access budget needed to be increased.  50% of that cohort are students new to the city, and the other 50% have extremely complex backgrounds;

(d)  there are a number of children that are new to the city that have a 2 to 4 year gap in their education.  There isn’t much information on these pupils initially, but there are Heads of Service that attend Fair Access Panel and are looking at these particular students;

RESOLVED to:

(1)  note the Local Authorities intention to continue working in partnership with NCSEP to deliver the secondary Fair Access Protocol.  A service level agreement is now in place;

(2)  note the Needs Led Tiered Funding Model will continue to operate and apply to all schools;

(3)  note that the Fair Access budget will run on an academic years basis rather than over a financial year;

(4)  note that the annual secondary Fair Access allocation will increase from £0.190m to £0.290m for the academic year 2015/16 funded from the Statutory Schools Reserve (SSR);

(5)  note that £25,000 from within the SSR will be allocated (as set out in section 5.2 of the report) for expenditure incurred by July 2015;

(6)  note that funding will be released on actual spend and any underspend will be unearmarked within the SSR;

(7)  note that the Managed Move strand of NCSEP’s work will be funded at an annual cost of £57,000 as part of the broader Fair Access process and as a strategy to reduce permanent exclusions.

  For 2015/16 academic year only this will be funded from the SSR based on actual expenditure.