Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received for the absence of Simon London (Secondary Academy), Julian Dutnall (Secondary Academy), Trevor Sim (Vulnerable Children), Keith Passingham (NASUWT) and David Thomas (Unison, Jennifer Kingaby substituting). 

The notes are attached at Appendix A.

The notes of the meeting held on 5^th December 2013 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman. There were no matters arising.

None.

(i)            To note the resignation of Sheila Clarke, primary school governor.

(ii)          To note the vacancies for two primary school governors, a special governor and representatives from primary academies and the Pupil Referral Service.  Election processes are underway for primary governors and academies have been asked to elect a representative from the primary sector.

It was noted that Sheila Clarke had recently resigned from the Forum meaning that there were now two vacancies for primary school representatives. A total of ten people had indicated an interest in the positions meaning that an election would have to be held. Two people had expressed an interest in the Special Schools vacancy which would mean an election would also be required for this position. The Pupil Referral Service was meeting next week to decide its representative and a representative was also being sought from Primary Academies.  

It was clarified that the term of office on the Forum would remain at four years but representatives who decided not to continue could be replaced during the term.

To note that the LA had used its powers of intervention under section 66 of the Education Inspections Act 2006 to suspend the right of the Brookside Junior School Governing Body to a delegated budget.  A Strategic Management Board has been put in place.

It was noted that this school was expected to become a sponsored Academy from 1 April 2014. The school’s deficit would be covered by the Local Authority and processes had been put in place to control the school’s budget. Several Governors had resigned from the School (leaving a total of four in position) and delegation had therefore been withdrawn from the school and a Strategic Management Board put in to control the budget.

In anticipation of the outcome of the DFE review of trade union facility time, it is recommended that a working group is establishment to consider an appropriate level of facility time for trade unions in Havering.

The Chair confirmed that guidance had not yet been received from the DfE and he therefore wished to set up the Forum’s own working group for this.

There was no indication of when the guidance was likely to be released but it was felt it was not critical to wait for this and that a working group could be set up immediately.  

It was agreed that a working party would be set up consisting of two Primary representatives (Nigel Emes and Chris Hobson), two Secondary representatives (Keith Williams and Simon London) and three Trade Union representatives (two teaching and one non-teaching). DA and a representative from HR would also be on the working group. It was hoped to report back at the March meeting of the Forum.

A consultation paper was sent to schools and academies on the school funding changes for 2014-15 based on October 2012 data.  There were no responses other than to query the impact on individual schools and academies.

It was noted that no responses had been received to the consultation document and the figures had now been agreed by the Lead Member. Funding factor values for 2014-15 would be reduced by 1% with formula gains capped at 0%.  No school would have a budget reduction of more than 1.5%.

Capital allocations have been announced as follows:

Capital allocations had been received for universal infant free meals and a 20% rise was expected in the take-up of these. There would therefore be a need to purchase larger ovens in some schools although there was not expected to be much physical adaptation needed of school kitchens.

MP was currently working with the asset team to ascertain schools’ precise needs in this regard. There were a small number of schools with different kitchen situations and it was hoped that accurate costings for the required work be available next week. It was felt that the £642,000 allocation would not be enough for the capital work needed.

Basic needs funding had increased slightly but it was felt that this would not be a sufficient amount overall. A report to Cabinet in February would indicate a gap in costs. MP thanked Heads for the conversations that had already taken place on this but emphasised that it was likely that only the bare minimum of work would be able to be carried out.

Academies had been working well together and were not planning to expand at present and. Meetings with Secondaries would take place in February in order to share projections data. It was projected that 5,000 extra school places would be needed in the borough and work was ongoing to ensure projections were as accurate as possible.

At the time of preparing this agenda there had been no announcement of revenue funding to support universal provision of free school meals for KS1 pupils and for disadvantaged students in further education and sixth-form colleges.  The impact of registration of eligibility remains an issue for January 2015.

It was confirmed that revenue funding had not yet been announced by the DfE. The impact on Pupil Premium was of concern if this would continue to be allocated on the basis of free school meal eligibility. Modelling had been carried out on universal benefits and it was possible that there may be a move to a figure in Universal Credit that would trigger free school meals.

Funding through the Dedicated Schools Grant for 2013-14 was announced on 19^th December. A summary is provided at Appendix B.

It was confirmed that per pupil funding had not increased and this had been multiplied by the number of pupils in the borough as at October 2013. There was a separate per pupil funding figure for the Early Years block and there was an increased target for two year olds. The High Needs block covered Special Schools, special units in mainstream schools, top up funding and alternative provision etc.

There were also some additions such as £3.1 million which included increased provision to meet the two year olds funding. Ealy Years transition funding had ceased. A deduction of £235,000 had also been made for the carbon reduction scheme. A bid had been made to the DfE for growth funding for the High Needs block.

Overall funding had increased from £189 million to £193 million but it was noted that this was mainly due to an increase in pupil numbers. These figures were very close to the estimates used by the LA funding officers in the calculation of budgets.   

To agree the funding allocations to schools based on October 2013 data prior to the submission of the final school budget proforma to the EFA by 21^st January.  Allocations will be presented at the meeting.

The Forum noted that it needed to agree the overall funding pro-forma for submission to the DfE. Some of factors were highlighted as follows:

6.8% of the total budget related to deprivation;

a factor for Looked After Children of £1,000 had been introduced;

English as an additional language only applied as a factor for three years after the pupil entered statutory education;

Very little funding was allocated through the mobility factor as this only applied for pupils above 10% threshold of the roll;

prior attainment for Secondaries now applied to those not achieving level 4 in english or maths;

Rates costs increased as school buildings expanded but DA confirmed that officers were dealing with this;

The minimum funding guarantee protected schools at a cost of £1.7 million;

81% of funding was distributed via the Basic Entitlement, above the national target of 80%;

The ratio of primary to secondary schools in Havering was 1:1.36 compared to a national average of 1:1.28.

There were 36 Havering schools who would have received an increase in funding but these had all been capped. A total of 41 schools had received a decrease in funding but schools were protected beyond a 1.5% reduction per pupil. This was an improvement on last year’s position when the gaps had been larger.

The Forum reviewed funding figures for all schools in Havering. This showed which schools had been protected to a 1.5% decrease if their original allocation would have resulted in a larger decrease. It was noted that some schools received extra funding for Early Years, special units or because they had half form infant class sizes.

The largest protection (£483,767) was for  Drapers which had seen a rise of 102 pupils. Conversely, Gaynes  would have  a year on year reduction of £641,000 mainly due to a fall in pupil numbers.

The figures presented were not the final allocations and would be adjusted for de-delegation, nursery funding, class size etc.

Criteria had previously been agreed by the Forum for good and outstanding schools that had falling rolls but two other schools also hadfalling rolls. Details of these would be brought to a future meeting of the Forum. 

The Forum approved the funding pro-forma as presented.

The Forum noted that the budget would be released by the end of February at the latest and would cover the period April 2014 to March 2015.

The next meetings have been arranged as follows:

It was noted that the next meeting would be on 13 February 2014 and it was hoped this would be held at CEME. Apologies for the meeting were recorded from Bill Edgar.

No matters were raised.