Meeting documents

RESOLVED

That Mr P Rowe (Headteacher at Princes Risborough School) be elected Chairman of the Schools Forum for the current academic year.

That Mr A Rosen (Headteacher at Aylesbury High School) be appointed Vice Chairman of Schools Forum for the current academic year

The following membership of the Schools Forum Funding Group was agreed:

Mr P Rowe – Chairman, Schools Forum

Mr A Rosen – Vice Chairman, Schools Forum

Mr S Sneesby – Special School representative

Mrs W Terry - Early Years representative (substitute Mrs F Brooks)

Mrs K Tamlyn – Combined School representative

Mrs A Coneron – Special School representative

Mr K Patrick – Academy Upper representative

Mr M Moore – Catholic Diocese of Northampton

Mr S Keary- Combined School representative.

Apologies were received from:

·         Mr A Wanford

·         Mr D Hood

·         Mr S Sneesby

·         Mr S Kearey

·         Ms J Freeman

There were no declarations of interest.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 08 June 2017.

The minutes from the meeting held on 08 June 2017 were agreed as an accurate record and signed by the Chairman.

There were no further matters arising.

To confirm the revised constitution.

·         There were some amendments to be made that were highlighted by the forum.

ACTION: Ms C Beevers

·         The forum voted for the adoption of the revised constitution- AGREED unanimously.

Report attached.

Verbal update to be provided by Ms S Ayton.

Ms S Ayton gave an overview of the paper provided.

Further points were raised as follows:

·         The deletion of ISN 6 meant there would be fewer points in the range so the level of increase would be higher. This would not be an issue within the Bucks Pay scheme.

·         Staff on range 1A tended to be midday supervisors or cleaners – class room assistants were range 1B.

·         Range 1A was still needed.

·         The alternative to removing points within the pay ranges would be to keep the same number of points but have lower increases each time.

·         There would be a 1% pay cap overall.

RESOLVED: The forum AGREED the proposal but pending further scrutiny regarding the minimum wage and national minimum living wage.

The Forum requested that Ms Ayton come back to the November meeting with a further update.

ACTION: Ms C Beevers

The Chairman thanked Ms Ayton for the update.

Update from Mr A Rosen.

Mr A Rosen gave a short overview of the discussions held at the SFFG.

Update from Mr D Hood.

Ms J Try gave a brief update on the Contingency group in Mr D Hood’s absence.

Update from Ms S Callaghan.

Ms S Callaghan gave an overview on the education strategies:

The following points were raised in discussion:

·         There would be a loss of the £650k in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) reform grant.

·         Decisions needed to be made as to what services should be recommissioned.

·         The Local Authority needed to consider future service provision recognising there would be changes to historic funding. 

·         Budgets and service provision needed to be configured to meet current demands and trends. The majority of Education and Health Care Plans (EHCP) were done just prior to the child going to the school.

·         The right support needed to be given to children at an early stage before starting school if appropriate.  There needed to be more efficient sharing of information between services.

·         The current Early Help Review was aimed at engaging with vulnerable families and their children at an early stage. There needed to be earlier identification of problems and a targeting of those families currently not accessing services.

·         The Early Help budget was  £7million.

·         As well as identifying the issues it was important to deliver the outcomes.

·         Partnership working, including with Social Care, was an important part of the strategy.

·         There had to be a review of existing service provision based on current funding as well as development of new opportunities to work together with health and social care.

·         There had  to be a needs led response, rather than a financially driven response.

The Chairman thanked Ms Callaghan for the update.

Report attached, update from Mr J Huskinson.

Mr J Huskinson gave an overview of the report provided.

The following points were raised in discussion:

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·         The NFF consultation document would come back to the end of October meeting.

ACTION: Mr J Huskinson

·         In the past there had been some concerns over the quality of the consultation and  whether the right questions were being asked. This would be scrutinised at the Funding Group meeting.

·         The consultation document needed to start with the strategic aims so that it was clear how Buckinghamshire were looking to achieve the end goal.

·         It would be useful to have models against different levels of schools so that  people responding to the consultation could get a general feel for what it would mean for them.

·         It would be useful to hold a series of roadshows prior to the consultation to help people through the difficult concepts. There should be an open question section at the end.

ACTIONS: Mr J Huskinson/Mr M Appleyard

The Chairman thanked Mr Huskinson for the update.

Dates to be confirmed.

·         Teacher recruitment- it was a pressing issue in schools.

·         De-delegation- work with contingency group first.

31 October 2017, 2-4.30pm. The Stafford Room, Green Park.

31 October 2017, 1.30pm, Stafford Room, Green Park.