Agenda and draft minutes

It was noted that Stuart Matthews had offered his apologies for the beginning of the meeting and therefore the Vice-Chair Elizabeth Savage would chair the meeting.

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or affected interests in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

Any Member with an affected Interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting.  There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of 11 January 2024.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the forum held on 11 January 2024

be approved as a correct record.

To update the Schools Forum on the 2023 Childcare Sufficiency Assessment (CSA), to be submitted to the Executive Member and subsequently published on the Bracknell Forest Council Website.

                                   The Forum received a report which sought to provide a update on the 2023 Childcare Sufficiency Assessment (CSA), which was to be submitted to the

Executive Member and subsequently published on the Bracknell Forest Council

Website, as required by the authority’s statutory duty to secure sufficient childcare.

Due to large changes to early years funding levels, large parts off the CSA would only apply to the previous financial year and would be out of date once the new financial year began on 1 April 2024. From the 1 April work would be done to understand the increases in demand for childcare and recruitment would take place to ensure additional capacity to carry out this work.

Arising from questions the following points was noted:

·       Whilst there had been sufficient childcare places in the previous year, there were some challenges in achieving this for the upcoming year. The local authority was negotiating with providers to try and ensure sufficient provision was in place.

RESOLVED That Schools Forum NOTES the 2023 Childcare Sufficiency Assessment.

To seek agreement from Schools Forum on:

·       Proposals for the introduction of monthly early years entitlement payments for childminders in Bracknell Forest.

·       Changes to the local funding agreement for funding early years provision and childcare.

The forum received a report which sought:

·       Agreement on proposals for the introduction of monthly early years entitlement payments for childminders in Bracknell Forest.

·       Agreement changes to the local funding agreement for funding early years provision and childcare.

·       To Provide an update on the local funding agreement, essential for providers to adhere to in order to secure funding for the provision of early years entitlements (referred to locally as the Provider Agreement), which had undergone revision to align with amendments in the statutory guidance for Local Authorities, including the expansion of early years entitlements from April 2024 and the introduction of a monthly payment option for childminders.

The proposals for the introduction of monthly early years entitlement payments for childminders, stemmed from the changes to funding from 1 April. This would mean that the council’s payments were the primary income source for many childminders and this sort to give childminders more stability in their income. These proposed changes had gone through an extensive consultation with childminders within the borough. It was noted childminders would retain the option to stay on their existing payment terms if they wished.

Due to changes in the early years funding, a number of changes were to be made to the provider agreement, including large changes in terminology. The primary changes were to include the new statutory requirements. Work was also ongoing with the legal team to improve the data sharing agreement with providers.

Arising from questions the following points were noted:

·       There is a funding gap for childcare providers, as government entitlements are only available during term time (equivalent to 38 weeks a year) which causes some working parents to have to stretch their entitlement, over more than 38 weeks.

RESOLVED that the forum:

AGREE that in accordance with the responses to the consultation with childminders the proposals for the introduction of monthly early years payments to childminders, as set out in points 5.3 to 5.9, are implemented from April 2024.

AGREE the revised Provider Agreement for funding early years provision and childcare, as set out in points 5.10 to 5.11.

NOTE the need for additional work on data sharing between the Council and early years providers, which will be addressed via an addendum to the Provider Agreement if required.

To agree the detailed budget proposals for the High Needs Block (HNB) element of the Schools Budget that are being presented now by the Council. These proposals reflect the latest spend forecasts for 2023-24 financial year together with the earlier work on the Safety Valve (SV) programme bid.

The Forum considered a report which sought agreement on the detailed budget proposals for the High Needs Block (HNB) element of the Schools Budget that are being presented now by the Council. These proposals reflected the latest spend forecasts for 2023-24 financial year together with the earlier work on the Safety Valve (SV) programme bid, for which an update on status was also provided.

The HNB is part of the dedicated schools grant and is provided to ensure funding for children with the most challenging educational needs. It was proposed that the budget for the HNB be set at £24.686m for 2024/25.

An update was provided on the progress of the Safety Valve programme which was approved by full council on 10 January and then submitted to the DfE shortly after. Confirmation had been received that the DfE had approved the Safety Valve bid and it was now awaiting approval from the treasury.

Bracknell Forest Council had also agreed funding for the new SME free school and had also submitted bids to fund 2 new secondary SRP’s.

In setting the annual budget, forecasts had been provided based on the December monitoring cycle and this suggested a HNB overspend of £10.10 million, an increase of £1.62 million from when it had last been reported. It was noted that these figures were subject to change, due to the volatile costs associated and possible changes in circumstances. The amount of money budgeted for inflationary pressures was based upon a forecast of a 2.8% increase from the Bank of England.

Arising from questions the following points were made:

• The Borough Solicitor had confirmed the Safety Valve content and agreement was lawful.
• Modelling suggested there would be growth in the number of EHCP’s over the next 5 years. The local authority had also committed not to put a cap on EHCP’s.
• The local authority had committed to prioritising early interventions, to ensure pupil’s received intervention at the earliest possible stage.
• The local plan would ensure a growth in specialist places within the borough in the next 5 years.
• In response to concerns over the number of specialist places in the short term it was confirmed that there was ongoing work with current resource providers, to ensure there was an outreach provision to ensure schools needs were met, and that the independent sector was being used to ensure the most complex needs were met and work was constantly ongoing to increase provision.
• Interim measures had been put in place to increase specialist resource provision capacity whilst building work was ongoing this included negotiating to increase specialist places at Sandhurst prior to the build being done, ensuring all places were now available at Kings Academy.
• Work was ongoing to determine the level of funding allocated to the banding tool and the local authority would work with headteachers to ensure appropriate values underpinned this. 
• A final decision had yet to be made on the closure of the Pupil Referral Unit at College Hall, if it was not closed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

The next meeting of the Forum will be held at 4.30pm on Thursday 20 June 2024.

The next meeting would take place on 20 June 2024.