Meeting documents

Apologies were received from Mr A Wanford, Ms J Freeman and Mr A Gillespie.

Ms C Glasgow gave her apologies for needing to leave the meeting early.

Ms A Kenward, Forum Clerk, confirmed that following a second call for nominations the following people would be joining the Forum as secondary school academy representatives:

• Mr R Page, Governor for Chalfont Community College
• Ms S Cromie, Head Teacher of Wycombe High School

There were no declarations of interest.

The following actions from the 12 December 2018 meeting were reviewed:

Item 2 –

• Ms Try, Senior Accountant, confirmed details of the reintegration grant for excluded pupils would be included in the next edition of the Schools Bulletin.

ACTION: Ms Try

• How to reflect the unique make up of Buckinghamshire schools in the election process/constitution was an ongoing action ahead of the next round of elections in May 2019.
• Ms Kenward, Forum Clerk, had made the requested changes to attendance.

Item 8 –

• Regarding the revision of the list of SEN schools, Ms S Callaghan, Service Director for Education confirmed that Kite Ridge had not initially been included as they were formally a PRU rather than a SEN school. The list had now been updated and would be circulated.

ACTION: Ms Callaghan

• The SEN Strategy and SEN Improvement Strategy had been revised to include a brief overview against each of the seven priorities. This would be taken to the Special Heads, BASH and PEB meetings before it was published.

ACTION: Ms Callaghan

Ms Kenward would make the following amendments to the minutes:

• Item 1 
  • Minutes to highlight members as being re-appointed rather than appointed to the Forum as appropriate.
• Item 8
  • A spelling correction would be made to the second bullet point.

ACTION: Ms Kenward

Following confusion over the start time of the meeting it was confirmed that all future meetings would start at 1.30pm. It was noted the Forum did not wish to use the Stafford Room in the Coach House in the future due to its size.

RESOLVED: Members of the forum AGREED the minutes for 11 December 2018 meeting with the amendments above and were signed by the Chairman.

For decision.

The Chairman confirmed that Buckinghamshire County Council had now received up to date DSG figures and had revised the budget accordingly.

Ms E Williams, Head of Finance, Children’s Services, explained that in light of the new funding of £1.3m in both 2018/19 and 2019/20 made available for the High Needs Block (HNB) since the December meeting, the DfE had suggested that all Schools Forums may wish to review their decision on transfers to the HNB from Schools Block.  This was outlined in the report circulated with the agenda. Ms Williams also gave a presentation which would be appended to the minutes.

Members of the forum raised and discussed the following points:

• Ms Callaghan, Service Director for Education, explained that initial figures for reducing placements were now believed to be unrealistic. She felt more comfortable with the revised target and would be able to provide regular updates on progress.
• Ms Williams explained that cost reductions were an ongoing piece of work which involved reviewing the cost of all interventions against their impact.
• Ms Williams explained that all costs in the report were based on predicted levels estimated from current needs and were therefore subject to change. She stated that without knowing exactly what support would be required throughout the year when setting the budget it was not possible to give a definitive figure.
• The Chairman suggested a working group to review the format for presenting the data. It was felt it would be useful to review each of the seven priorities against their own budgets to see how they were performing. It was agreed the next Schools Forum Funding Group meeting, on 8 March 2019, would address this and would be open to all forum members.

ACTION: Schools Funding Forum Group

The meeting then considered the potential transfer from Schools Block to High Needs

• Several forum members stated that their colleagues had asked them to vote for a 0% transfer to HNB due to a lack of confidence in BCC actions regarding the Healthy Pupils Capital Fund. Feedback was that head teachers felt:
  • Opportunities for the County Council to work and communicate with schools had been lost.
  • Schools would prefer to keep the funding within their own budgets and direct the spend themselves.
  • This made those head teachers reluctant to agree to a transfer.
• Ms Callaghan stated that the funding was not going directly to BCC but to the schools who support SEN students regardless of their placement type. She felt that BCC had taken steps to ensure their actions were both legally compliant and in line with what other authorities were doing.

The eligible members of the forum (all head teachers and governors) voted on the following recommendations:

a)    To continue with the model agreed in December 2018, updated for the latest data and allocations, including a transfer of £0,5m from Schools Block to High Needs Block as set out in model 1a.

b)   To agree a £0 transfer from Schools Block to High Needs block, in light of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

For decision.

Ms Try, Senior Accountant gave an overview of the report circulated with the agenda. It was noted this had not yet been to the Early Years Forum meeting who would meet on 31 January 2019.

Members of the forum raised and discussed the following points:

• Concerns were raised regarding cost increases, such as the new living wage and pension requirements.  It was now much harder to create and manage early year placements at current funding levels.

• Ms Try stated it was a requirement for BCC to prove to the Department for Education (DfE) that at least 95% of 3 and 4 year old budgeted funding was to be passed to providers with up to 5% left for central services.
• Ms Try stated a £500k reserve had been set up to manage any potential DfE clawback on 2018-19 allocations expected in June 2019. 2018-19 allocations were based on January 2018 census details and would be updated for January 2019 census figures. A clawback of funding would occur if pupil numbers proved to be lower. It was possible there would be more money available if pupil numbers proved to be higher in the January 2019 census.
• Ms Nicholls noted she had not had the opportunity to review the new December budget with early year’s colleagues. She asked that the forum vote with this in mind and allowed the option to make minor amendments if necessary.

The forum voted on the following recommendation:

·         Schools Forum members are asked to note the information set out in this report and to agree the proposed rates as set out in 5.4 of the report.

RESOLVED: Members of the forum voted unanimously to support the recommendation with the caveat that early years colleagues could make minor amendments.

For decision.

Ms Williams gave an overview of the report circulated with the agenda.

Following discussion the following amendments would be made to the forward plan:

• The induction session for new members would be held before the March 2019 meeting.

ACTION: Ms Williams

• The membership item would be moved to the June meeting. The review of the constitution would remain in October in line with the new school year.

·         A High Needs Block item would be added to the October meeting as it would be necessary to consider a transfer of funds at that stage.

RESOLVED: the Forward Plan was NOTED pending the above changes.

For decision.

Ms Try gave an overview of the report circulated with the agenda.

Ms Try had published on schools bulletin that information was now available on Schools web to help schools complete their application form for contingency.

Ms Callaghan confirmed the new permanent Head of SEN would start April 2019.

RESOLVED: Members of the forum voted unanimously to support the reports recommendation.

RESOLVED: the forum AGREED unanimously that the press and public be excluded for the following item which is exempt by virtue of Paragraph 4 of Part 1 of Schedule 12a of the Local Government Act 1972 because it contains information relating to any consultations or negotiations, or contemplated consultations or negotiations, in connection with any labour relations matter arising between the Authority or a Minister of the Crown and employees of, or office holders under, the Authority.

The Chairman stated that if there were no comments to be made on the confidential minutes of the meeting held on 11 December 2018 there would not be a need to exclude members of the public from the meeting.

RESOLVED: Members of the forum AGREED the meeting would remain open to the public.

RESOLVED: Members of the forum AGREED the confidential minutes for 11 December 2018 meeting were accurate and were signed by the Chairman.

25 March 2019, 1.30pm. Knight Hall, Green Park

Any other business

Mr J Carter, BCC Accountant, was looking for a Schools Forum representative to join Schools Forum’s Start Up and Diseconomy Group. The group reviewed start up arrangements for new and expanding schools. Current workload until September 2019 was minimal with two schools under review. Ms J Antrobus volunteered to join the group.

RESOLVED: Ms Antrobus would join the Start Up and Diseconomy Group.

The following dates were confirmed for 2019 meetings: