Meeting documents

To elect an interim Chairman until the annual elections of Chairman and Vice-Chairman in September 2016.

RESOLVED

That Mr P Rowe (Headteacher at Princes Risborough School) be appointed Interim Chairman of Schools Forum until the formal elections for Chairman and Vice Chairman at the meeting on the 27 September 2016.

It was agreed that nominations for the permanent positions of Chairman and Vice Chairman would be sought and agreed prior to, rather than during the meeting in September.

Apologies for absence were received from Mr D Hood, Mr S Kearey, Mrs A Coneron, Mr A Nobbs, Mrs C Glasgow, Mrs J Nicholls, Cllr Z Mohammed and Mr N Wilson.

There were no declarations of interest

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on the 15 March 2016

The minutes of the meeting held on the 15 March 2016 were confirmed as a correct record subsequent to the following minor amendments:

Page 7

The deletion of the following duplicate paragraph:

Concern was expressed about the impact of the £70k reduction for School Meals and Participation Worker. Mrs Wilding reported that funding was not required as schools meals were no longer an in-house provision and that the funding source for the Participation Worker had changed, although this work was still taking place.

Page 8

Amendment to the national average percentage as follows:

Members were advised that apart from 2 Greater London Authorities, the percentage of pupils with a Statement of SEN or Education Health Care Plan was never less than 1% and that this figure was 3.28% in Bucks compared to the national average of 2.8%.

Page 11

The following paragraph moved from page 11 and inserted after the point b) on page 10 ‘that insufficient free reserves and balances are able to cover these costs’.

Members of Schools Forum were asked for guidance on dealing with applications for additional schools numbers etc.

Page 12 – 6^th bullet point

The correction of the spelling of the word difficultly

What the best way of addressing the issue of schools in difficulty would be

Page 16

The insertion of the paragraph:

The following four members of Schools Forum agreed to act as an Appeal Panel to discuss any applications that had been declined by the Contingency Panel: Mr N Wilson, Mrs T Haddon, Mr A Nobbs, Mrs G Bull.

Deletion of the Action: An appeal process would be discussed and an update given at the next meeting of Schools Forum.

Addition of the Actions:

The appeal process used by other local authorities would be looked into – Director of Education.

The Terms of Reference for the Contingency Panel would be updated accordingly to reflect any changes to the appeal process – Member Services Officer.

For Members of Schools Forum to ratify an electronic election process for Schools Forum representatives.

Electronic Election Process for Schools Forum representatives

Members discussed the document included in the agenda pack which gave details of the election process for Schools Forum representatives.

Members of Schools Forum AGREED with the use of an electronic election process subsequent to the following amendments:

·         The officer name should to be amended to Clerk to Schools Forum.

·         The inclusion of the clarification of the maximum number of words for the personal statement.

·         Legal clarification of whether the election process needed to be carried out by post as well as electronically to take into account the possibility that a candidate did not have internet access.

·         Point 2 (a) Nominations to be amended to – ‘any governor or head may nominate himself/herself as a candidate for election’.

·         Point 3 (a) Voting - to be amended to ‘if only one nomination is received, the candidate will be automatically elected’.

Mr P Rowe gave an update on items discussed at the Schools Forum Funding Group meeting which took place on the 22 April 2016. The draft minutes are attached for information.

ACTIONS:

·      The current and revised versions of the Financial Scheme of Delegation and an overview of the major changes would be presented to Members of Schools Forum- Mrs E Wilding.

·      The f40 group would be contacted to clarify their response to the next stage of the Fair Funding consultation – Mrs E Wilding

·      Further legal advice would be sought on the clarification of the terminology used in the Terms of Reference–Service Director Education.

·      A timeline for consultations and recommendations to be undertaken by Schools Forum would be compiled – Mr J Huskinson

·      Legal clarification would be obtained of the proposed changes to the Constitution – Member Services Officer.

·         Academisation of Schools

·         Fair Funding

This item was deferred to the next meeting.

For Members of Schools Forum to ratify the Historic Commitments Return

Mrs E Wilding explained that Central Government wanted to create a new central schools block which would bring together two existing funding streams through which local authorities receive funding for their responsibilities:

·         centrally retained Dedicated Schools Grant

·         retained duties Education Services Grant

Members were advised that the proposal was to distribute funding using a simple per pupil formula. Local authorities had been asked to submit a return detailing their historic commitments by 27 May 2016.

Members heard that there were historic commitments still in place in some areas such as:

·         the 5 year contract with Bucks Learning Trust as funding had been agreed prior to April 2013

·         Schools PRC which was an ongoing national issue.

·         The capital bid to expand Bierton School was committed to in 2012 but had been put on hold due to land issues and currently parking/council issues due to local opposition. 

·         The agreement by Schools Forum that 2016-17 was the last year that the £3.3m contribution to capital would be made which would be spread over two years £1.65m in 2016-17 and £1.65m in 2017-18

Members were advised that Mr A Johnson, 14-19 Commissioner, had presented a report at the last meeting of Schools Forum Funding Group explaining that the funding for Practical Learning Opportunities and 14-19 Commissioning dated back to April 2010 when the following two statutory duties transferred from the Learning and Skills Council to Local Authorities:

·      To secure enough suitable education and training to meet the reasonable needs of young people who are over compulsory school age but under 19, and those aged 19-25 and are subject to learning difficulty assessment (LLDD).

·      To encourage, enable or assist young people’s participation in education or training.

Mr Johnson had also advised SFFG members that there were the historic commitments of the School Engagement Programme: Increasing Flexibility Programme: Parents and Carers Events to promote post-16 options: and the Raising of the Participation Age and Work Related Learning and that with the exception of the Work Related Learning, all of the above commitments were committed prior to 2013. Mr Johnson said it was felt that these budgets needed to be retained as without this funding many learners from disadvantaged backgrounds would be disadvantaged even further.

ACTION:

Clarification of the services provided by Bucks Learning Trust would be given at the September meeting of Schools Forum – Mr Huskinson

Members of Schools Forum AGREED with the retention of the budget for Historical Commitments.

Members were advised that there had not been a meeting of the f40 group since the March meeting of Schools Forum.

No items of urgent business were raised.

The next meeting will take place on Tuesday 21 June 2016, 2.00pm, Green Park, Aston Clinton.

Future meeting dates

27 September          

29 November

The next meeting will take place on Tuesday 21 June 2016, 2pm, The Knight Room, The Coach House, Green Park, Aston Clinton.

Future meeting dates for 2016:

27 September

29 December