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.

Joanna Quinn declared an interest in respect of Item 6 in relation to Wooden Hill School as this was considered in the proposed capital programme.

Margaret Saner declared an interest in respect of Item 6 in relation to Garth Hill College as a governor at the school.

Keith Grainger declared an interest in respect of Item 6 in relation to Garth Hill College as the Headteacher of the school.

Trisha Donkin declared an interest in respect of Item 6 in relation to Garth Hill College.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of 18 October 2012.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 18 October 2012 be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

The Forum considered a report which set out the changes being made from April 2013 by the Department for Education (DfE) to the structure of education funding through a re-configuration of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG). There would also be changes in funding responsibilities, particularly in relation to special educational needs, with consequential funding adjustments between local authorities and grant funding bodies.

The paper also explained the implications; there was confirmation that a new budget baseline needed to be established and the approved Bracknell Forest Schools Budget needed to be aligned with the new baseline before the 2013-14 budget setting process could commence.

RESOLVED that the Schools Forum:

1. NOTED the changes being made to the composition of the DSG, as set out in the supporting information;

2. NOTED the provisional amounts in each DSG Block for Bracknell Forest, as summarised in Table 3 at paragraph 5.28;

3. REQUESTED that the Executive Member AGREE:

The Forum considered an update on school funding and proposals from the Council for the 2013-14 Schools Budget. The views of the Schools Forum on the proposals were sought in advance of the 22 January 2013 deadline for submitting to the Department for Education (DfE) the actual Funding Formula for Schools to be used in 2013-14 and associated units of resource.

A presentation was made to the Forum highlighting the following key points:

• The financial settlement from the DfE provided:
  • no uplift for inflation,
  • fully funded increases in pupil numbers
  • increased the Pupil Premium rates by around 50%
  • allocated BF £0.894m to expand support to 2 year olds
• There was an additional £1.606m available to allocate through the Bracknell Forest Funding Formula for Schools which after funding the key pressures that met the criteria in the budget strategy left £0.442m for schools to allocate to their own priorities.
• Funding from the Pupil Premium would increase by £0.617m.
• That the majority of the £0.505m pressure on external SEN placements should be funded from the £0.190m SEN contingency initially established to support mainstream schools and the £0.269m budget to fund in-year changes in SEN numbers and needs.
• Schools faced a number of pressures that had not been funded in the financial settlement from the DfE and could not, therefore be included in the Bracknell Forest Funding Formula for Schools. This was most significant in pay and general inflation which was estimated at £0.763m.
• That due to issues of affordability, there would be a uniform per pupil funding rate for secondary schools, rather than differential rates for KS3 and KS4.
• Per pupil funding rates in the BF Funding Formula would be limited to no more than 98% of the per pupil funding allocated to Bracknell Forest by the DfE.
• New criteria had been established for the contingencies that supported schools with excessive in-year increases in pupil numbers or financial difficulties in complying with the KS1 infant class size regulations.
• The DfE had negotiated a national contract for all schools in respect of the Copyright Licensing Agency and Music Publishers Association licences which would require de-delegation of funds from schools to the Council to finance the authority wide bill that the DfE would in future be submitting to the Council.

RESOLVED that the Schools Forum:

1. NOTED that the forecast budget data and associated financial matters set out in the report;

2. In its role of statutory decision maker, the Forum AGREED the following matters in respect of the 2013-14 Schools Budget:

a.      that the initial budget amounts for services to be centrally managed by the council were as set out in Annex 1;

b.      the criteria to be used to allocate funds in-year to schools experiencing excessive increases in pupil numbers or unavoidable costs arising from Key Stage 1 class size regulations were as set out in Annex 4;

c.      that the arrangements in place for provisions for statemented pupils (where not delegated) were appropriate.

3. In its role as the representative body of schools and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

The Forum considered the 2013/14 budget proposals of the Executive for the Children, Young People and Learning Department in respect of:

• The revenue budget (Annexes B and C), and
• The capital programme (Annex D).

Under the Council’s constitution, the Executive was required to consult on its detailed budget proposals with the Council’s Overview & Scrutiny Commission and other interested parties for a period of at least six weeks. The report presented an overview of the Council’s budget position and the specific proposals relevant to the Children, Young People and Learning (CYPL) Department to the Schools Forum for comment.

All comments received on the budget proposals would be submitted to the Executive on 13 February 2013 along with details of the final finance settlement. This would allow the Executive to determine its final budget package and recommend the appropriate Council Tax level to Council, who would formally approve the 2013/14 budget and Council Tax on 27 February 2013.

The next meeting of the Schools Forum is scheduled for Thursday 7 February 2013 at 4.30pm in the Council Chamber at Easthampstead House but given the close proximity of this date it is likely that the Schools Forum will next meet on Thursday 14 March 2013, unless there is no business to discuss.

The Forum noted that its next scheduled meeting on 7 February 2013 was cancelled. The next meeting of the Forum was scheduled for Thursday 14 March 2013 at 4.30pm in the Council Chamber at Easthampstead House.