Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Emma Allen (Special Maintained), David Denchfield (Primary Academy), Bill Edgar (Secondary Maintained), Gary Pocock (Special Academy), Jan Taylor (Primary Maintained), John McKernan (Academy Governor), Maria Thompson (Post 16), John Delaney (NUT) and John Giles (UNISON).  An apology for absence was also received from Trevor Cook, Assistant Director, Education. 

Michael Nunn was in attendance as a substitute for Jan Taylor (Primary Maintained) and Vicky Fackler was in attendance as a substitute for Gary Pocock (Special Academy).

John McGill was in attendance representing NASUWT and would continue to attend until a replacement for Keith Passingham had been confirmed.

Mark Vickers, Chief Executive Officer, Olive AP Academy Trust and Penelope Denny, Head of Behaviour Support and Traveller Support, were in attendance in respect of Agenda Item No. 4, Olive AP Academy – Funding Arrangements.

The minutes of the meeting of the Forum held on the 14 December 2017 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman, subject to the following amendment:

·         Minute No. 38, Early Years Funding 2018-19 refers:  Heading of table on page 3 to be amended to read ‘No. of schools/providers responding’.

The following matters arose from the minutes of the previous meeting:

·      Minute No. 39, High Needs Strategy 2017-22 refers:  The Strategic Finance Manager explained that £800,000 of capital grant funding was available from the DfE for the next three years for SEND provision and the Local Authority must set out a business case for its release.  However, expenditure on increased provision was restricted for use at good and outstanding providers only although all providers could benefit from improvements.  The LA has earmarked £100,000 from the grant to establish a small grants programme and providers would be invited to bid for grants up to £10,000, to improve their provision and facilities for special educational needs.

·      Minute No. 40, Schools and High Needs Funding 2018-19 refers: Members were informed that schools would receive notification of their 2018/19 budgets by the 28 February 2018.

The Local Authority had received a request from the Olive AP Academy to increase the total number of places commissioned by the Local Authority on behalf of secondary schools and to introduce a two tier funding approach that would increase the funding allocated for a proportion of the places funded.  Mr Mark Vickers, Chief Executive Officer, Olive AP Academy Trust presented a report which requested the Forum consider the proposals from the Olive AP Academy for additional funding.

Members were provided a background to the Academy in order to put the request into context.  It was explained that the academy’s site in Havering opened on 1 September 2016, after its predecessor, Manor Green College, had been in special measures.  The school had inherited poor quality teaching and the Academy was keen to ensure an inclusive continual provision, with much work having been undertaken to ensure that the accommodation was fit for purpose and the staffing restructure had led to stronger staffing at the academy.  The building was being reconfigured, with works planned to commence in April 2018, which would significantly improve the quality of provision for the children. 

Mr Vickers presented the rationale for ensuring that the academy was adequately funded to be able to take full advantage of the opportunities being created by the emerging partnerships between Olive Academies, Havering Borough Council and Havering schools.

The Published Admission Number for the academy’s Havering site was 64, with the number on roll currently at 59. In response to questioning, members were advised that if the number on roll were to reach 64, further discussions around funding would be needed as the academy would no longer be able to run intervention groups if the number of permanent exclusions continued to rise.

The current funding arrangements for the Olive AP Academy were as follows: 

A document detailing benchmarked local authority top-up levels of funding was circulated at the meeting, as below:

Mr Vickers expressed concern that the current pupil numbers and funding formula were severely limiting the capacity of the academy to be able to play its full part in the continuum of inclusion provision for Havering’s pupils, and the agreed published admission number also restricted the academy’s financial capacity.  Furthermore, Mr Vickers expressed the concerns of the Trust Board as to whether it would be possible to continue to run the academy without an increase in either, or both, pupil number and local authority top up funding in its current financial position. 

It was explained that the minimum additional income required for 64 pupils in order for the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47.

The Strategic Finance Manager presented a report which requested members consider options to target additional funding to support schools that have disproportionately high numbers of pupils with Educational Health Care Plans on their school roll. 

The high needs operational guide for 2018-19 published by the ESFA included guidance on the allocation of high needs funding to mainstream schools and academies.  The operational guidance and funding regulations allowed local authorities to allocate additional funding to schools where there were a disproportionate number of pupils with a particular type of SEND. 

A document detailing the Funding to schools with disproportionate number of high needs pupils was circulated at the meeting.  An explanation of the current funding arrangement and options available were provided.  The differing needs in parts of the borough were highlighted and the importance of Educational Health Care plan applications being approved as soon as possible.  Concern was raised that some private early year providers steer away from accepting children with special educational needs as no funding was available.

Currently, additional funding was based on the calculation of a school’s notional SEN funding and if less than the number of pupils on roll with EHCPs x £6,000, then the difference in the two amounts was allocated to the school.  A continuation of this arrangement was proposed as option A.

Option B provided additional funding to schools that had numbers of pupils with EHCPs on roll of 10 or more (primary) and 15 or more (secondary).

Option C calculated schools’ percentage of pupils with EHCPs compared to the borough average and also the funding per pupil that schools received through the funding formula.  For schools with above average per pupil funding, additional High Needs funding was allocated only where per pupil funding (above the borough average) was less than the cost of meeting the first £6,000 of support for the pupil with EHCPs above the borough average.  For schools with funding below the borough average, additional High Needs funding was allocated for pupils with EHCPs above the average scaled down, the closer the schools per pupil funding to the borough average. 

The Forum resolved to agree to Option C for the allocation of additional funding to schools with a disproportionate number of pupils with Educational Health Care Plans from the High Needs Block. 

The Strategic Finance Manager presented a report which requested members agree the criteria for the allocation of funding from the Pupil Growth Fund in the 2018-19 financial year. 

The £2.7m held centrally was to meet the following costs based on DFE operational guidance:

(i)        Planned growth in schools and academies through an increase in PAN or a bulge class

(ii)       Places in bulges classes that were unfilled at the October census date for schools that had committed additional teaching and other costs

(iii)      Capacity held in a school by the LA for future growth that is not already funded through Falling Rolls criteria

(iv)      The requirement to meet infant class size regulations

(v)       An additional needs supplement for growing schools

The Forum agreed the proposed criteria for allocation of the Pupil Growth Fund in 2018-19.

The Strategic Finance Manager presented a report which set out the proposal for funding Good and Outstanding schools through the Falling Rolls Fund for the 2018-19 financial year. 

The allocation in Havering was £0.4 million and the prosed formula was as follows:

(PAN x 85%) minus Yr R/Yr 7 pupil numbers (October census) x 90% AWPU

Plus

(PAN x 85%) minus Yr 1/Yr 8 pupil numbers (October census) x 50% AWPU

The Forum agreed the criteria for allocation of funding to schools in 2018-19 from the falling rolls fund, as proposed.

It was clarified that funding agreed through this criteria would continue for the rest of the financial year even if an OFSTED report was published with a judgement of less than good after the date of the LA funding decisions.

Future meetings have been arranged as follows:

22^nd March 2018

10^th May 2018

7^th June 2018

5^th July 2018

Future meetings had been arranged as follows:

22^nd March

10^th May

7^th June

5^th July

There was no other business raised.