Agenda and minutes

Kathryn Bouchlaghem

Jo Bradley

Shaun Farrington

Alison Tones

Dean Pomeroy

The Forum was informed that Les Michalak has resigned and the Chair has written him a letter thanking him for his hard work on the Forum.

None

Last meeting held on 13 January 2014 for confirmation

Subject to changing ‘and’ to ‘an’ in the second bullet point of resolution 1 (a) in minute 29, the Forum confirmed the minutes of the meeting held on 13 January 2014 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

Laura Wilson, Clerk to the Forum, updated the work programme at the meeting to defer the report on Effective Early Assessment for Children in Schools to the next meeting of the Forum and confirmed that Tim O’Neill, Director of Family Community Teams would provide a verbal update at this meeting instead of a report.

Report of Head of Education Partnerships

Alistair Conquer, Head of Education Partnerships, introduced his report detailing the proposed changes to the Schools Forum constitution and membership for discussion by the Forum prior to agreement of changes by the Forum in April 2014 for implementation from September 2014.

The changes are required due to new guidance issued by the Education Funding Agency in October 2013, to reflect the change in the proportion of maintained schools and academies and other local changes, to reduce the size of the Forum to facilitate more effective decision making and to provide clarity to decision making processes.

The following comments were made during the discussion:

(a)  the unions feel that they should have two votes – one to represent teachers and one to represent support staff;

(b)  there is a greater representation of headteachers for maintained schools. It isn’t balanced with the number of governors;

(c)  it will be difficult to feed back to groups if the Education Improvement   Partnerships (EIPs) are not the basis for representation;

(d)  there has been poor attendance at the Forum which means that not all EIPs are represented currently;

(e)  governors do not have regular meetings so it will be difficult to elect representatives;

(f)  the drive is to be more strategic and effective and smaller meetings are more   streamlined and run better. There is a change to the representation so the meeting will run slightly differently but Children and Families will provide support to ensure that the meetings are effective;

(g)  there is the opportunity for primary headteachers to meet as a group but it   isn’t well attended;

(h)  the vision of where the Forum fits in with the Local Authority needs to be clear;

(i)  the Forum needs a view on how its decisions affect the Local Authority and vice-versa;

(j)  the reduced numbers could mean that all views aren’t represented;

(k)  the proposals mean a shift in emphasis and responsibility so members will need to know more than they currently do, but the proposals will have benefits.

RESOLVED to

(1)  consider the proposals for changes to the membership of the Schools Forum from September 2014, as detailed in paragraph 2.3 of the report, and submit comments, in addition to those recorded above, to Laura Wilson, Clerk to the Forum, by 28 February 2014;

(2)  consider the proposals for a revised constitution, including revised proposals for election of members for implementation from September   2014, as detailed in Appendix 1 of the report, and submit comments, in addition to those recorded above, to Laura Wilson, Clerk to the Forum, by 28 February 2014;

(3)  consider a revised meeting cycle from September 2014, as detailed in paragraph 2.5 of the report.

Report of Director of Family Community Teams

Tim O’Neill, Director of Family Community Teams, provided the Forum with the following verbal update on what the report will cover at the April meeting:

(a)  the focus is on early help and a shift in the system towards universal and 'additional' tier interventions expected by Working Together and Ofsted;

(b)  the Local Authority will have approximately a 40% reduction in the budget by 2018, and therefore needs to save money;

(c)  a recent Serious Case Review highlighted the requirement for better service join up;

(d)  there is a shift towards schools having greater financial responsibility and being independent from the Local Authority;

(e)  information around Nottingham's behaviour and attendance issues;

(f)  there is a need to secure more effective early help, particularly early identification and intervention;

(g)  it is important to work together on:

·  Operating Model development;

·  Nottingham City Safeguarding Children Board;

·  Family Support Strategy;

·  Schools partnership arrangements;

(h)  areas for improvement in the system include early identification and co-ordinated early support across schools and the Local Authority/other partners, but there are plenty of examples of excellence and good practice e.g. family support in schools;

(i)  areas for development include:

·  Common Assessment Framework(CAF)/early assessment;

·  Family Support services in and around learner settings;

·  Children and Families Bill implementation.

He provided the following additional information in response to questions and comments from the Forum:

(j)  the difficulties in getting partners involved in the CAF demonstrates why a new focus is needed. The universal process needs to ensure that the right professionals are involved;

(k)  collectively all partners need to work out how to support children in the current financial climate. It is important to use budgets more effectively.

Report of Director of Family Community Teams

Michael Wilsher, Inclusion Officer, introduced the Director of Family Community Teams’ report notifying the Forum that there will be no full cost recovery for permanent exclusions for the 2013/14 financial year due to recent changes in funding for Learning Centres, and that a separate report will be presented to the Forum to propose future methods for full cost recovery to be agreed for the 2014/15 financial year.

He provided the following additional information in response to questions and comments from the Forum:

(a)  there has been an increase in the number of permanent exclusions from primary schools so early intervention is important;

(b)  full cost recovery only currently affects secondary schools.

RESOLVED to

(1)  note that there will be no full cost recovery for permanent exclusions issued during the 2013/14 financial year and the implications of this detailed in section 5 of the report;

(2)  note that for every permanent exclusions made, the Average Weighted Pupil Unit will be paid to the Pupil Referral Unit, which aligns to Department for Education funding principles;

(3)  note that a separate report will be presented to the Schools Forum to propose future methods for full cost recovery for the 2014/15 financial year.