Meeting documents

Ms Kenward to confirm apologies received.

Apologies were received from Ms G Bull, Mr A Gillespie and Mrs S Fahey.

There were no declarations of interest.

Lead by The Chairman

The forum reviewed the following actions from the meeting held on 15 January 2019:

• Page 6 of the agenda pack
  • Ms J Try, Senior Accountant, confirmed details of the reintegration grant for excluded pupils had been circulated via the Schools Bulletin. Ms Try stated calculations would be back dated to 1 April 2018.
  • The list of SEN schools, including revised details for Kite Ridge School, had been shared.
  • The SEN Strategy and SEN Improvement Strategy had been updated and a new improvement board had been established.
• Page 7 of the agenda pack
  • The Schools Forum Funding Group had met as planned on 8 March 2019. A further update would be given under item 4 of this meeting
• Page 9 of the agenda pack
  • The induction session had met as planned before the meeting. A copy of the presentation would be appended to the minutes.

RESOLVED: Members of the forum AGREED the minutes for 15 January 2019 meeting and were signed by the Chairman.

Update from Kevin Patrick, Chairman of Schools Forum Funding Group.

Mr K Patrick, Chairman of the Schools Forum Funding Group (SFFG), gave an overview of the meeting held on 8 March 2019.

Mr Patrick confirmed the purposed of the SFFG was to review papers for content and clarity ready for discussion and decision at the meeting. The group normally had a closed membership made up of Schools Forum members however all members had been invited to attend the meeting held on 8 March to facilitate a discussion around the forum’s role in agreed budget transfers to the High Needs Block (HNB).

Mr Patrick stated that the members of the Forum did not feel secure making decisions relating to the HNB and SEN with their current level of oversight. As a result of the meeting it was agreed with officers that:

• From June 2019 there would be a different approach to how financial information was displayed.
• Cost saving recommendations would include high level key performance indicators (KPI) against the seven priorities to show how money is spent and the impact on student outcomes.
• Following the start of, Hero Slinn, new Head of SEN 0n 1 April 2019 the existing oversight forums/meetings (i.e. inclusion hub, integrated services) would be reviewed to see if they were still fit for purpose.

Miss S Callaghan, Service Director for Education, added there would be an interim Head of Improvement (Paulette Thompson) to support the new Head of SEN in her first couple of months in role. Ms Callaghan confirmed that she and Ms E Williams, Head of Finance, Childrens Services, had already began work regarding KPIs.

Miss S Callaghan also emphasised the need for shared accountability to drive down the spend that was contributing to unsustainable budget pressures within the HNB. The spend is for placements; if placements are high cost independent placements, the budget will remain under pressure. Therefore, there was a need for schools to work with officers to reconfigure the offer across Special Schools and additional resource provision so that there was reduced dependency on high cost placements.

A member of the forum asked if BCC would be taking legal advice regarding reductions to SEN funding given that there had been successful challenges by parents in other parts of the country. Ms Callaghan stated she was confident changes were compliant with SEN legislation.

RESOLVED: The Forum asked that initial ideas on KPIs and financial reporting be brought to the 18 June 2019 Schools Forum meeting.

Report from Liz Williams, Head of Finance. For discussion and decision.

Ms E Williams, Head of Finance, Children Services, referred to the report circulated with the agenda.

Ms Williams confirmed the report would be taken to SF for consultation only.

The following points were discussed and Ms Williams confirmed:

• Benchmarking would take place to ensure bandings were similar to those used by other authorities.
• The initial consultation on the banding exercise would take place before the summer holidays and would focus on definitions rather than resources.
•   It was intended to consider banding across all phases from mainstream to specialist provision however part of the project plan would be to consider the resources required for implementation and whether it should be phased.
• Officers were confident that the banding system was the correct solution to move away from the current provision-led system in line with national guidance. However they would be open to considering other options should they present themselves.
• It was felt the point two of the report was not well worded. It was felt it currently read as asking the Forum to make a strategic decision rather than note the report and agree its timeline. Ms Williams would review the wording.

ACTION: Ms Williams

RESOLVED: The Forum noted the report and endorsed the direction of travel.

Report from Jonathan Carter, Accountant. For discussion and decision.

Please note inclusion of track changes on the report is intended.

Mr J Carter, BCC Accountant, referred to the report circulated with the agenda.

Mr Carter confirmed this report was to update the Forum on progress only and no decision was needed at this time. Mr Carter noted that changes had been made to the report following feedback from the SFFG.

RESOLVED: the forum NOTED the report which would now go on for consultation. Further details of the consultation would be shared in the Schools Bulletin.

Report for information only.

Mrs J Nicholls, Head of Early Years (EY) referred to the report circulated with the agenda.

At the January meeting School Forum agreed that the proposed Early Years Funding paper for 19/20 should be shared with the EY forum as there had not been time to previously consult and minor amendments would be accepted. This had now been done and small changes had been made at their request.

EY forum  voted for Option 1 as set out in the report to address unspent Disability Access Funding (DAF), Inclusion Fund and contingency Fund in 2018-19 This distributes DAF using SEN and Deprivation criteria, the remaining funds to be distributed to each setting based on a 2p per child per hour basis for 2018-19 only

For 2019-20 proposals, Mr M Appleyard, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, acknowledged that this had been a close vote and following discussion he had made the decision to adopt option 1, which will increase the deprivation budget allowing greater financial support to settings based on deprivation identified through family home post codes.

For future years there would be a different 3 & 4 year old funding model for maintained nursery schools. Currently they received a lump sum plus an additional 30p per hour per funded child. To comply with revised regulations the hourly rate will be the single universal base rate with an increased lump to maintain the same funding levels.

RESOLVED: The Forum noted the report.

Financial exposure of local schools of the liquidation of the E-ACT and Bucks Learning Trust (BLT)

Ms S Callaghan, Service Director for Education, confirmed her service was working with the administrator for the BLT to mitigate risks.. Ms Callaghan stated it was not a statutory requirement to honour BLT’s financial commitments but BCC was looking to honour statutory support to schools.

Burnham Park Academy closure

Ms Callaghan confirmed BCC was a consultee only at this stage and Mr B Dunn had been attending meetings on BCC’s behalf.

Contingency fund update

Following decision letters going out to schools there had been four appeals. The Contingency Fund Group would come together following the meeting to consider the appeals.

F40 (The Campaign for Fairer Funding in Education

Mr M Appleyard, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, was now part of this group. Mr Appleyard asked for feedback on what the Department for Education (DfE) could be doing differently for schools? [A brief email was circulated following the meeting asking for feedback.]

The next Schools Forum meeting would be 18 June 2019.

The next Schools Forum Funding Forum meeting would be 22 May 2019.

Tuesday 18 June 2019, 1.30pm

Knights Hall, Green Park,