Agenda and minutes

Maria Artingstoll

Susi Artis

Dave Hooker

Gary Holmes

Andy Jenkins

Chris Manze

Mark Precious

Terry Smith

Dawn Whitemore

Councillor Sam Webster

None.

Minutes of the last meeting held on 21 April 2016 (for confirmation)

The minutes of the meeting from 21 April 2016 were agreed as a correct record and signed  by the Chair.

The work programme for the next meeting of the Forum was noted.

·  Closedown of the 15/16 fund

·  Update on the 16/17 fund

Lucy Juby, Project Manager, School Organisation, updated the Forum highlighting the following:

(a)  the remaining balance after the 2015/16 closedown was £36,089. This was slightly higher than expected as the early years funding for Fernwood was lower;

(b)  most of the schemes for 2016/17 were approved by Schools Forum in January;

(c)  Glade Hill Primary is taking an additional bulge year, in advance of a possible permanent expansion due to a shortage of places in the area;

(d)  IDEAL provision is still under review but £8,000 has been set aside for this;

(e)  the largest amount is a one-off payment to Nottingham Academy for their new site on Sneinton Boulevard opening in September. They have taken on additional pupils gradually over a number of years;

(f)  Huntingdon Primary is taking a bulge year, as it has done in previous years, due to pressure on school places in the area;

(g)   The remaining balance currently stands at £39,547.

RESOLVED to note the information

Report of the Directors of Education

Ceri Walters, Finance Business Partner, Children and Adults, introduced the report updating the Forum on the statutory monitoring process for deficit maintained schools, highlighting the following:

(a)  the report sets out the steps to be taken when a maintained school sets a deficit budget, as specified in the Fair Funding Scheme;

(b)  the process only applies where the deficit exceeds 5% of the school budget share or £35,000 for primary schools, and 2.5% of the school budget share or £70,000 for secondary schools;

(c)  if schools have any further queries on this they can contact Schools Finance or the Clerk of the Schools’ Forum.

RESOLVED to note the statutory monitoring process for deficit maintained schools

Joint report of the Corporate Director for Children and Adults and the Chief Finance Officer

Ceri Walters, Finance Business Partner, Children and Adults, introduced the report setting out the 2015/16 Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) outturn and the updated reserve balance.

The following points were raised in the discussion which followed:

(a)  secondary schools are still waiting devolved high needs funds and additional high needs in terms of behaviour are also unfunded. Schools Finance and the Director of Education are currently working on resolving this;

(b)  Forum members there may be a large future contingency needed for education of children in hospitals, due to increased number at the Queens Medical Centre and a new mental health hospital. National funding is currently frozen so this could fall to the High Needs Block.

RESOLVED to

(1)  note that the 2015/16 financial outturn position of the DSG was an underspend of £1.373m and the reasons for the material underspend are as follows:

(2)  note that this under spend has been allocated back to the Statutory Schools Reserve (SSR) resulting in a closing balance of £11.997m for 2015/16, as below:

(3)  note that based on current commitments, that the SSR balance by 31 March 2022 should be £4.201m, as in the table above.

To agree to meet on the following Thursdays at 1.45pm:

22th September 2016

20th October 2016

8th December 2016

19th January 2017

23rd February 2017

20th April 2017

22nd June 2017

The Forum noted that the dates have been set for the 2015/16 academic year as follows:

22 September 2016

3 November 2016

8 December 2016

19 January 2017

23 February 2017

20 April 2017

22 June 2017

Some dates may be subject to financial deadlines set by the Department for Education.