Agenda and minutes

Members are asked to declare any personal interest and the nature of that interest, 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.

John Throssell declared an interest in agenda item 4 being Chairman of Governors at Crown Wood School.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of 13 September 2012.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 13 September 2012 be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

The Forum considered a report summarising the results of the Financial Consultation exercise with governing bodies and other interested parties.  It set out schools’ views regarding a number of changes proposed to the way funds were to be allocated to mainstream schools which the Schools Forum was requested to take into account when making proposals for the 2013-14 Bracknell Forest Funding Formula for Schools which would be formally agreed by the Executive Member for Children, Young People & Learning.

The Forum noted the outcome from the financial consultation with schools.  It was reminded that it had received reports on school funding reform which had confirmed that there would be no changes to the national funding system before the start of the next Spending Review Period (2015), but that for April 2013, there would be an impact on local arrangements for schools from the following key changes:

·                     The simplification and standardisation of the way that resources were distributed to schools through the funding formula, with each local authority required to inform the Department for Education of its new formula no later than 31 October, 2012.

·                     Creating a national benchmark for funding schools in their general budgets to support pupils with special educational needs;

·                     Delegation of additional resources to schools for services currently managed centrally by the Council.

A School Funding Review Group with membership from head teachers, governors, school bursars and local authority officers had worked through the new requirements and agreed the questions to be asked of all schools through a 12 week consultation period.  Responses had been received from 30 out of 37 schools (81% response rate).

The Forum was advised that, in general, there had been a strong consensus of opinion from respondents, with at least 73% of replies supporting the same proposal on 23 out of 26 questions (88%). The areas where there was less agreement related to:

·                     Question 4 - The method to be used to distribute funds to schools to recognise deprivation where the most popular option received 40% of responses.

·                     Questions 13 and 14 - The method to be used to distribute funds to schools from factors that would be non-compliant with the new funding regulation. The most popular option for property related items attracted 53% of responses with the most popular option for non-property related items attracting 57%.

The changes proposed ensured compliance with the draft School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations, 2013.

In response to a question, the Forum was advised that information relating to Kennel Lane School and the College Hall Pupil Referral Unit would be presented to it too.

The Forum was duly invited to consider its decision on each of the questions posed as part of the consultation.

RESOLVED that

1          Those schools losing money at April 2013 through the funding reforms be allowed to retain any significant surplus balance without a valid reason until 31 March 2015;

2          The decisions in respect of each of the questions posed as part of the consultation be as follows:

Question 1  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

The next meeting of the Schools Forum is scheduled for Thursday 13 December 2012 at 4.30pm in the Council Chamber at Easthampstead House.

The Forum noted that its next meeting was scheduled for Thursday 13 December 2012 at 4.30pm in the Council Chamber at Easthampstead House.