Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED to appoint Sian Hampton as Chair of Schools Forum for the 2017/18 academic year.

RESOLVED to appoint Judith Kemplay as Vice-Chair of Schools Forum for the 2017/18 academic year.

To note the appointment of the following members for a period of 3 academic years:

·  Caroline Caille – Primary Academies

·  Sian Hampton – Secondary Academies

·  Andy Jenkins – Maintained Primary Schools

·  Judith Kemplay – Maintained Primary Schools

·  Steve McLaren – The Nottingham Nursery

·  Janet Molyneux – Maintained Primary Governors

·  Debbie Simon – Early Years PVI

·  Terry Smith – Maintained Primary Schools

·  David Stewart – Maintained Special Schools

·  James Strawbridge – Primary Academy Governors

To note that vacancies remain for the following representation:

·  Alternative Provision Academies

·  FE Colleges

RESOLVED to note

(1)  the appointment of the following members for a period of 3 academic years:

Caroline Caille – Primary Academies;

Sian Hampton – Secondary Academies;

Andy Jenkins – Maintained Primary Schools;

Judith Kemplay – Maintained Primary Schools;

Steve McLaren – The Nottingham Nursery;

Janet Molyneux – Maintained Primary Governors;

Debbie Simon – Early Years PVI;

Terry Smith – Maintained Primary Schools;

David Stewart – Maintained Special Schools;

James Strawbridge – Primary Academy Governors;

(2)  that vacancies remain for the following representation:

Alternative Provision Academies;

FE colleges.

Maria Artingstoll

David Holdsworth

None.

Minutes of the meeting held on 22 June 2017, for confirmation.

The minutes of the meeting held on 22 June 2017 were agreed and signed by the Chair.

Report of the Director of HR and Transformation

Della Sewell, Employee Relations Manager, introduced the report outlining the proposed arrangements for trade union facility time for senior trade union representatives from schools to attend negotiation and consultation meetings, and represent their members in schools in 2018/19.

In response to questions and comments from members, Della provided the following additional information:

(a)  subscription fees cover regional representatives, but not local representatives;

(b)  local representatives provide support and advice, as well as dispute resolution;

(c)  the de-delegated budget is split between the 5 unions;

(d)  the amount being de-delegated is increasing to reflect the pay award for the last 2 years;

(e)  if academies don’t pay in to the service then representatives won’t be paid to attend;

(f)  the local authority don’t contribute to the budget as it is part of the Department for Education’s calculations for funding.

RESOLVED

(1)  for maintained mainstream primary schools to:

(a)  approve the de-delegation of funding for senior trade union representatives at a rate of £1.55 per pupil, and a lump sum of £1,622 per school;

(b)  note that the total de-delegated is £66,000, which is made up of £17,000 generated by pupil numbers, and £49,000 lump sum funding;

(2)  for the maintained mainstream secondary school to:

(a)  approve the de-delegation of funding for senior trade union representatives at a rate of £1.55 per pupil, and a lump sum of £1,622 per school;

(b)  note the total de-delegated is £4,000, which is made of up £2,000 generated by pupil numbers, and £2,000 lump sum funding.

Report of the Corporate Director for Children and Adults

David Thompson, Schools Health and Safety Manager, introduced the report updating the Forum on the statutory and legislative health and safety responsibilities of the local authority in relation to maintenance and testing of maintained school properties, and how the de-delegated funding is used to support this, and requesting de-delegation of funding for schools health and safety building equipment inspections for maintained schools in 2018/19.

The Forum discussed the recommendations to de-delegate the funding and use £100,000 of reserves, but agreed that further information is required before a decision can be made.

RESOLVED to defer the report to the December meeting of Forum to allow for the following information to be provided:

·  a school by school break down of what funding is spent and when;

·  market testing to ensure that the service provides value for money;

·  what the remaining £77,000 of reserves will be used for;

·  the impact of using the total £177,000 reserves.

Report of the Corporate Director for Children and Adults

Jane Daffé, Senior Achievement Consultant, Vulnerable Groups, introduced the report outlining the proposals for the IDEAL service to secure a fully traded position from 2019/20, and requesting that maintained schools approve de-delegation of funding in 2018/19 to enable this to happen.

The Forum discussed the recommendations to de-delegate the funding, but agreed that further information is required before a decision can be made.

RESOLVED to defer the report to the December meeting of Forum to allow for the following information to be provided:

·  a school by school break down of contributions, as some schools require greater support than others;

·  details of the revised core offer that will be provided by the service.

Report of the Corporate Director for Children and Adults

Kimberley Butler, Behaviour Support Team Leader, introduced the report outlining the work of the Behaviour Support Team to enable the Forum to consider what information will need to be provided at the December meeting when approval for de-delegation of funding for the team for 2018/19 will be sought.

The Forum requested that the following additional information be supplied in the report for the December meeting:

·  updated details of the core offer;

·  the implications for Key Stage 1 if de-delegation isn’t approved;

·  more details on costs and projected income;

·  funding details for Key Stage 3 and 4;

·  a breakdown of how many days per school the funding will buy;

·  a comparison of the offer to maintained schools with the packages that academies can buy;

·  how much funding would go to each school if the de-delegation isn’t approved.

Presentation

Kathryn Stevenson, Senior Commercial Business Partner, informed the Forum of the draft proposals for planned high needs places for 2018/19, and highlighted the following:

(a)  where number changes may be required have been identified based on current numbers, known leavers in July 2018, anticipated/average new admissions, and limits to physical capacity;

(b)  the proposed key changes are:

(c)  the financial impact of the extra places is estimated at £317,000 in 2018/19, with the full year effect in 2019/20 anticipated to be £532,000, which will be met from gains under the new national High Needs formula;

(d)  the indicative Higher Needs funding increase for 2018/19 is £1.049m;

(e)  failure to provide sufficient places risks pupils having to be placed in more costly out of city provision.

Kathryn also informed the Forum that under the new process there is a cross border import/export adjustment so the high needs budget will be compensated if a pupil from the county attends a city setting.  In addition to planned places, the high needs submission to the Education Funding Agency includes the opportunity to put in funding requests for additional hospital education funding where this is linked to increases in NHS provision.  We will be requesting funding for the new Hopewood Unit opening in Spring 2018.

Presentation

Ceri Walters, Head of Commercial Finance, updated the Forum on the National Funding Formula and High Needs funding proposals for 2018/19, and highlighted the following:

(a)  the structure of the funding system from 2018/19 is:

·  the Dedicated Schools Grant will be allocated in 4 blocks (schools, high needs, early years, and central schools services), and each will be calculated on the basis of a different national formula;

·  99.5% of the schools block will be ring-fenced and must be distributed through the local formula for schools. With the agreement of Schools Forum, local authorities can move 0.5% in to other blocks;

(b)  it remains the Department for Education’s long-term intention that schools budgets should be set on the basis of a single, national formula (a hard formula). To ensure some transitional stability, local authorities will continue to set a local formula for schools in 2018/19 and 2019/20;

(c)  the city’s schools are amongst the biggest beneficiaries of the decision to invest additional funding in schools and high needs over the next two years. It will guarantee that the schools block allocation is based on a 0.5% per pupil increase in 2018/19 and 1% by 2019/20 compared to baseline funding. Previously the majority of city schools were due to receive a 1.5% per pupil funding cut;

(d)  the final proposals the following illustrative allocations:

·  a 0.06% (£1.167m) increase to the total schools block for 2018/19, compared to the consultation proposals of a 1.2% reduction £2.384m);

·  this is a shift of 1.8% (approximately £3.5m) increase in funding for the schools block based on pupil numbers at a point in time;

(e)  the proposed funding floor means that the city’s schools will continue to get significantly more than other similar schools nationally that were lower funded in the past;

(f)  based on the illustrative figures provided by the Department for Education in October 2017, in 2019/20 the city’s schools will receive £9.8m protection as a result of the 1% funding floor;

(g)  on average, the city’s schools will be getting an extra £267 per pupil through the funding floor. All but 2 schools are getting funding floor protection (1 primary and 1 secondary), but they are already gaining through the new formula;

(h)  the High Needs formula proposed in December 2016 has been amended:

·  the funding floor has been increased from 0% to 0.5% in 2018/19 and 1% in 2019/20;

·  the funding floor and the gains are being calculated on a per head of population basis;

·  later updates for some formula elements will better reflect the movement of pupils and students (the basic entitlement factor and import/export adjustments);

(i)  the High Needs national funding formula is based on:

·  basic entitlement factor - £4,000 per special school and special post 16 institution pupil/student;

·  import/export adjustments - £6,000 per high needs pupil/student;

·  historic spend factor – cash sum equivalent to 50% of 2017/18 spend baseline;

(j)  the impacts on the city include:

·  due to be the highest gaining local authority in percentage terms (23%);

·  the High  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

Report of the Corporate Director for Children and Adults and the Chief Finance Officer

Sian Hampton, Chair of the Forum, and Judith Kemplay, Vice-Chair of the Forum, introduced the report outlining the recommendations of the Schools Forum Sub Group on specific items of central expenditure for inclusion in the 2018/19 budget setting process.

RESOLVED to

(1)  approve the following central expenditure associated with Combined Services:

(a)  Family Support, as detailed in Appendix B of the report;

(b)  Integrated Placements, as detailed in Appendix C of the report;

(c)  Safeguarding Training, as detailed in Appendix D of the report;

(d)  Serving Vulnerable Children, as detailed in Appendix E of the report;

(2)  approve the continued work undertaken by Service Managers to produce value for money statements each year outlining the educational impact of each service area;

(3)  require each Service Manager to work their counterparts in each area to develop a cohesive and co-ordinated approach to improving Children’s Services.

Report of the Corporate Director for Children and Adults and the Chief Finance Officer

Ceri Walters, Head of Commercial Finance, introduced the report outlining the Council’s proposed central expenditure, excluding Combined Services, for the 2018/19 budget.

RESOLVED to

(1)  approve the central expenditure items totalling £3.976m, detailed in Table 2 of the report, noting the additional historical detail set out in Appendix A of the report;

(2)  note that the cost of Copyright Licenses totalling £190,000 does not require approval;

(3)  note that where values are based on pupil numbers, estimates have been based on the October 2016 census and, once the latest census has been issued and final allocations have been issued by the Department for Education, these figures will be updated and represented.

Sian Hampton, Chair of the Forum, introduced the work programme which provides details of the items to be considered at future meetings, and informed the Forum that it will need to be updated to reflect the items deferred from this meeting, and the reports detailed in the funding formula update.

To note the dates of meetings scheduled for the 2017/18 academic year, at 1.45 pm at Loxley House:

Thursday 7 December 2017

Wednesday 16 January 2018

Wednesday 13 February 2018

Wednesday 24 April 2018

Wednesday 26 June 2018

Laura Wilson, Senior Governance Officer, informed the Forum that the dates for 2018 are Tuesday’s and not Wednesday’s as stated on the agenda.

RESOLVED to meet at 1.45pm on the following dates for the 2017/18 academic year:

Thursday 7 December 2017

Tuesday 16 January 2018

Tuesday 13 February 2018

Tuesday 24 April 2018

Tuesday 26 June 2018