Agenda item

Joint report of the Corporate Director for Children and Adults and the Directors of Education

Anna White, Strategic Director, Nottingham City Secondary Education Partnership (NCSEP), introduced the report providing the Forum with the outcome on the consultation with secondary schools on the future use of High Needs funding ring fenced for pupils who are at risk of or already permanently excluded from mainstream education. Anna highlighted the following:

(a)  the original proposal was to devolve funding to all secondary schools to give them a greater role in commissioning alternative provision and services, to ensure quality and improve outcomes;

(b)  unfortunately not all schools have agreed to opt into the pilot, as they are subject to a clawback clause for exclusions post April 2016 and would receive no funds or have to pay funds back to the Local Authority. This is because these schools have already permanently excluded pupils during the current financial year, the costs of which go beyond the agreed available funding;

(c)  the level of permanent exclusion in Nottingham has been high for a number of years, peaking in 2014/15. There are currently 105 pupils on roll at Denewood Learning Centre and 143 on roll at Unity Learning Centre which is unsustainable;

The following points were raised by member of the Forum during the discussion which followed:

(d)  there was originally a proposal for a primary pilot in Clifton as well, but this never happened as the secondary school didn’t want to be involved which was frustrating for the primary heads;

(e)  the secondary heads that have not opted into the pilot are not against its principles and do recognise that the number of permanent exclusions needs to reduce;

(f)  quality assurance of the pilot will be scrutinised in a termly report to the Finance Sub-Group of the Schools Forum;

(g)  the pilot appears to benefit the schools that exclude the least rather than those that exclude a lot, however it should be seen as something that will eventually benefit the entire city school population, rather than individual schools. This will be easier to realise if or when all schools are on board.

RESOLVED to

(1)  note that three trusts comprising of six secondary schools have accepted the Local Authority’s offer of their share of High Needs funding based on the July 2016 Finance Model and SLA presented by the LA. This group will form the High Needs Exclusions Pilot and is made up of the Greenwood Dale Academies Trust, Bluecoat Academies Trust and the Trinity Catholic School. Funding will be released for this current financial year (2016/17) prior to the end of the financial year and for financial year 2017/18;

(2)  note that at present not all schools could agree to the pilot, due to high exclusion rates and an exclusion cost recovery clawback clause, and some schools in the city are not incentivised to join under the current finance model;

(3)  note that NCSEP and the LA will continue to work together to find a position where all secondary schools in the city will participate in these arrangements;

(4)  note the reinstatement of the Finance Sub-Group of the Schools Forum and that NCSEP will be expected to provide a termly update on progress in relation to the pilot proposal.