Agenda and minutes

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest or an Affected 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 Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of 28 November 2013.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 28 November 2013 be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

The views of the Schools Forum are sought on the 2014/15 budget proposals.

The views of the Forum were sought on the Local Authority Budget Proposals 2014/15. Under the Council’s constitution, the Executive was required to consult on its detailed budget proposals with the Council’s Overview & Scrutiny Commission and any other interested parties or individuals for a period of at least six weeks. The report summarised the current position on the Council’s budget preparations for 2014/15, and included proposed pressures and savings in relation to the budget with a focus on the proposals from the Children, Young People and Learning Department.

Comments received on these budget proposals would be submitted to the Executive on 11 February 2014 along with details of the final Financial Settlement which would allow for the consideration of views received in making final decisions. The 2014/15 budget and Council Tax was due to be formally approved by full Council on 26 February 2014.

RESOLVED that the Schools Forum requested the following comment be presented in respect of the 2014/15 budget proposals of the Executive for the Children, Young People and Learning Department on:

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

The Schools Forum were concerned regarding all of the proposed budget cuts in services in relation to Children, Young People and Learning and the potential impact on education and children and young people in Bracknell Forest, but were particularly concerned with budget cuts affecting the most vulnerable children, including the Early Years Service, and looked after children. The Forum noted that economies needed to be made but were concerned about the impact on frontline services at the Borough Council.

To receive an update on school funding and comments are sought from the Schools Forum on proposals from the Council for the 2014-15 Schools Block element of the Schools Budget.

The Forum received an update report on school funding and comments were sought from Forum members on proposals from the Council for the 2014-15 Schools Block element of the Schools Budget. Within the overall budget setting process, there were a number of areas that the Forum had responsibility for, and these were presented for a decision.

The views of the Schools Forum on the proposals were sought in advance of the 21 January 2014 deadline for submission to the Department for Education (DfE) and the actual Funding Formula for Schools to be used in 2014-15 with associated units of resource.

Adding together the estimated increase in Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) income of £1.352m and £0.144m draw down from the Job Evaluation Reserve, there was additional income of £1.496m for next year’s Schools Block budget. After taking account of £0.291m of savings and applying the agreed budget strategy in the development of pressures that should be funded, there was £0.404m remaining for general allocation to schools on the basis of pupil numbers, deprivation and low prior attainment. Added to this, there was around £0.5m additional income to schools from the Pupil Premium making £0.904m of unallocated funds for school use. This overall increase in funding was estimated to be around £0.156m more than the unfunded costs schools would face.

In order to take account of the most up to date cost and income forecasts, proposals in respect of the High Needs and Early Years Block budgets would be presented to the Forum for consideration at the next meeting.

RESOLVED that in its role of statutory decision maker, the Forum AGREED:

1. that the arrangements in place for the administration of central government grants were appropriate (paragraph 5.38);

2. that the initial budget amounts for School Block DSG funded services to be centrally managed by the council were as set out in Annex 1 (paragraph 5.41);

3. the revised criteria to be used from the 2013-14 financial year to allocate funds in-year to schools experiencing unavoidable costs arising from Key Stage 1 class size regulations be amended to that set out in Annex 6 (paragraphs 5.42 and 5.43).

RESOLVED that in its role as the representative body of schools and other providers of education and childcare, the Forum REQUESTED that the Executive Member AGREE the following decisions for the 2014-15 Schools Budget:

1. that a new School Expansion Rates Reserve was created to finance future anticipated cost increases arising from the school expansion programme, and that it was initially funded through a £0.112m transfer from the Schools Budget General Reserve (paragraphs 5.25 and 5.26);

2. that with effect from 1 April 2014, schools implement the £ equivalent of the Living Wage for non-teaching staff, and that £0.144m was drawn down from the Job Evaluation Reserve to fund estimated 2014-15 costs and allocated to schools through reference to pupil numbers and £0.023m for Kennel Lane Special School (paragraphs 5.19 – 5.22);

3. that the £0.180m of savings proposed on the Schools Block were agreed (paragraph 5.24);

4. the £1.496m  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

The next meetings of the Schools Forum are scheduled at 4.30pm in the Council Chamber at Easthampstead House for:

Thursday 13 March 2014

Thursday 24 April 2014

The Forum noted that the next meeting was scheduled for 13 March 2014 at 4.30pm in the Council Chamber at Easthampstead House. If there was no business to discuss meetings would be cancelled.