Meeting documents

Apologies for absence were received from Debra Rutley, Karen Collett, Katherine Douglas, Angela Coneron, Claudia Glasgow, Annette Pryce and Rebecca Richardson.

The Chairman welcomed Owen Lloyd, Iver Heath Junior School to the meeting as Junior School Headteacher representative.

Nicholas Wilson, the Interim Director of Education for Buckinghamshire County Council was also welcomed to the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 24 November 2015

The minutes of the meeting held on 24 November 2015 were agreed subsequent to the following amendments:

School Support Staff Pay Increase

Concern was expressed that schools could not afford to fund the support staff pay increase.

Members of Schools Forum:

Voted in favour of a 1% pay increase for all pay ranges in April 2016 to be amended to voted in favour of the proposed increase being put out to vote.

Schools Forum Funding Group update – modelling of the Formula changes

The consultation document was approved by the Schools Forum on the basis of prior attainment being at £1200.  Subsequently a mistake was identified which led to the authority changing the consulted amount for prior attainment to £1400.  The change has not been seen nor agreed by Members of Schools Forum.

Members of the Forum requested that the minutes be amended to reflect the debate and views about the proposed changes to the Funding Formula and the consultation, including dissenting opinions.

Action: Member Services Officer

There were no Matters Arising.

A paper was presented updating Schools Forum on the likely service offerings for schools and academies from Business Services Plus for 2016-17.

Schools Forum was asked to comment on:

·         The proposed changes to services

·         The average price increases which will be in the region of 2%-3% across the services

·         The current situation with the charging mechanism

The following questions were asked and comments made.

1.    Why are academies charged more for Business Services Plus?

2.    Why are small schools charged less – there was some feeling that small schools are adequately taken care of through the schools funding formula and therefore should not be subject to special treatment.  It was felt that this was an issue that could be addressed for 2017-18.

These questions would be forwarded to the appropriate officer to provide a response for the March meeting.

Action: Emma Wilding/Sharon Griffin

Members AGREED that the current charging mechanism should continue this year and alternative modelling was to be requesting for the subsequent year.

Members were advised that the Department of Education is proposing to make a change to section 6.2 of the Scheme for financing schools guidance, to include admission appeals as one of the services in which a local authority can charge school budgets for agreed services.

The options are:

1. The local authority can continue to retain the funds centrally, or
2. The centrally retained monies are shared with all schools and then all schools are charged for their admission appeals.

The impact on schools

Option 1: If this option were followed then voluntary aided, foundation and academy schools could no longer be charged for appeals.

Option 2: all schools would be charged for appeals (having had finances distributed)

The full impact of each option would be considered before a final decision was made. The impact would therefore not be until 2017-18.

Recommendation from Schools Forum Funding Group

That if the proposed change comes into force, during 2016/17 Buckinghamshire Local Authority would consult all schools and seek the approval of the members of the Schools Forum representing maintained schools as to their preferred way of managing appeals charges from 2017/18.  

The following questions were asked.

Would consultation take place with all schools or just voluntary controlled schools? Clarification would be obtained.

Action: Emma Wilding

Would the centrally retained monies be shared with all schools? This would depend on the option chosen.

This item was deferred to the next meeting.

The following items were discussed at the Schools Forum Funding Group meeting on the 10 December 2015.

·        Admissions Appeals

·        High Needs funding

·        Remaining Central budget

·        Modelling of Formula changes

·        Legal position of current Schools Funding consultation

The minutes of the meeting are attached for information.

Members of Schools Forum were referred to the Central Spend report which gives details of the proposed Dedicated Schools Grant central budget for 2016-17.

Members are asked to agree the central budgets as follows:

·         Central Schools – Schools Forum decision

·         De-delegation – Primary and Secondary Maintained Schools decide for their phase

·         Early Years Central – Schools Forum decision

·         High Needs – for consultation only

Emma Wilding highlighted the following key points in the document.

Central Spend

The corresponding spreadsheet sets out the activity, the permanent budget, regulations, the initial proposed changes, the final proposed changes and the final changes in budget for 2016-17 since the confirmation of the funding settlement being received from the DfE. As a result of the budget announcement, Buckinghamshire has received just under £6m extra funding due to the increase of 1285 pupils. Some High Needs monies has also been received (approximately £0.5m nett)

Rates reserve

The rates reserve was within the formula for the forecast overspend.  The value of the rates for each school needed to be set. There had been an issue with some academies not sending rate returns to the EFA and in turn, the Local Authority not being informed of the payment amount required.  A figure had been set aside for two years in anticipation of this payment. 

Following recommendation by the Schools Forum Funding Group that the DSG budget be reduced by 5% in 2016-17, budget holders were asked to provide full justification of their budgets.  A business case was requested if the 5% saving for 2016-17 was unable to be met which included the impact on service delivery. If sufficient information was not provided for Schools Forum to agree to give back the additional 5%, the assumption would be the 5% saving would be taken. A model was produced sharing the 618k on an equal basis between lump sum and AWPU.  A paper outlining the model was tabled at November meeting of Schools Forum.

Admissions advised that they were able to make a 5% reduction. It was not possible for Bucks Learning Trust to make this reduction due to the nature of the contract.

Members of the Schools Forum Funding Group were advised that despite some last minute announcement from the DfE regarding extra high needs funding (worth c £1m to Bucks in 2016/17) as part of a £90m+ national pot, the growth in high needs results in a significant net pressure which needs to be funded. To avoid having to ask schools to fund this in 2016/17 from schools block, it was suggested that the £3.3m remaining capital contribution from DSG for pre-existing capital schemes could be rephased, so that instead of it being £3.3m in 2016/17 then £0 thereafter, it became £1.65m for 2016/17 and 2017/18 then £0 thereafter.

Licences

A paper on the changes to Licences costs was presented at the November meeting of Schools Forum.

Following discussion Members agreed that a 2% increase in cost assumption for the increased cost of licences was sufficient,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Anthony Ogden advised the following.

17 applications for funding were received at the last Contingency Group meeting totalling £200,000.

One substantial application was not supported at the meeting; this may be presented to the Group at a later stage to reconsider.

There was a lot of discussion about the role of the Contingency Fund in terms of supporting schools to take on additional students and costs.  A paper seeking guidance from members of Schools Forum will be presented at the March meeting.

Action: Emma Wilding

The Cabinet Member for Education and Skills advised the following.

·         A letter about the Fair School Funding campaign was sent to the Prime Minister. The response was circulated to members of Schools Forum.

·         The Chair of the Education Select Committee and Chairman of f40 recently met to discuss the proposed formula. The proposed formula will be presented to the Select Committee.

·         There were announcements in the Chancellor’s Spending Review about the Education Services Grant (ESG) and Dedicated School Grant (DSG). How these announcements will affect Buckinghamshire needs to be looked at as well as ways of addressing this. One area of concern are the statutory responsibilities within the Review.

·         F40 funding proposals and formulas have been looked at. The preferred option would favour Buckinghamshire. The options would be consulted upon.

·         High Needs funding was not discussed at the last F40 meeting. There could be some loss of funding under the High Needs block which is an area of concern.

·         Members were asked to contact the Cabinet Member if there were any areas of concern they would like raised at the F40 group.

The Constitution with revisions from Legal is be added to the agenda of a future meeting for agreement by Members of Schools Forum.

Action: Member Services Officer

The next meeting will take place on Tuesday 19 January 2016, 2.00pm, Green Park, Aston Clinton.

Future meeting dates

15 March       27 September

3 May             29 November

21 June

The next meeting will take place on Friday 19 January 2016, 2.30am, Green Park, Aston Clinton.

Future meeting dates

15 March                   27 September

3 May                         29 November

21 June                                

Member noted the Forward Plan.