Agenda and minutes
Venue: Council Chamber, Fourth Floor, Easthampstead House, Bracknell
Contact: Hannah Stevenson 01344 352308
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Declarations of Interest 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. Minutes: Keith Stapylton, Governor at Great Hollands, expressed an interest in Item 6 as Great Hollands has a Resource Centre. |
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Minutes and Matters Arising PDF 278 KB To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of 8 December 2016. Minutes: Item 36 – Bracknell and Wokingham College had been approached regarding the 14-19 Partnership Representative Vacancy, this was being taken to their Senior Leadership Team for discussion.
Item 41 – The post item note had been added to the minutes as an error had been identified on the Early Years consultation document that needed to be corrected before it was distributed to providers for comment.
RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on the 8 December 2016 be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record. |
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Proposals For The 2017-18 Schools Block Element Of The Schools Budget PDF 573 KB Minutes: The Forum were presented with a report which updated them on school funding and sought comments on the final proposals from the Council to the 2017-18 Schools Block element of the Schools Budget.
Provisional funding information had been available at the Schools Forum meeting on the 8 December 2016 as it had been important to make some early decisions so that budget planning could be suitably progressed so the that the council would be able to meet the DfE deadline of 20 January 2017 for Local Authorities to submit the actual Funding Formula and units of resource that would be used in 2017/18.
The key points that were discussed were:
RESOLVED that the Forum Members AGREED the following recommendations:
As decision maker:
RESOLVED that the Forum Members AGREED 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 2017-18 Schools Budget:
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Update On School And Education Funding PDF 327 KB Minutes: The Forum were updated on the potential implications for the council and schools from Stage 2 of the consultations issued by the Department for Education (DfE) relating to proposed changes to education and school funding. Following the outcomes from the Stage 1 consultation, a number of key decisions had been taken by the DfE that allowed for illustrative financial implications to be issued to LAs and schools. However, some areas still require attention meaning most figures needed to be viewed with caution. The Stage 2 consultation would end on 22 March 2017. The illustrations had been based on 2016/17 data, when the changes would come into effect in 2018/19, so would be subject to updating, but the information provided was a good starting point.
The key proposals of the DfE consultation and been included in the report to Members and confirmed that in general there would be an increase in funds to BFC schools but that the Council faced a significant loss of income from the reforms, most notably from withdrawal of the Education Services Grant (£1.237m) and the new formula proposed to allocate funds for High Needs Pupils (£2.327m).
The Forum discussed these key points:
As a result of the Members questions, the following points were made:
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High Needs Block Review PDF 254 KB Additional documents: Minutes: The Forum revived an update report on the High Needs Block Review. Executive endorsement to implement the recommendations within the attached High Needs Block funding (HNBF) review report would be sought.
There had been a comprehensive review taken place which had considered key areas and as a result the report contained 4 broad recommendations for the future:
1. Increasing strategic leadership by the school sector across the SEND system in Bracknell Forest 2. Strong co-ordinated local authority leadership for planning of places and funding and commissioning 3. Greater coherence to the SEND system designed with the child’s need at the centre 4. A data-rich SEND system that understands the differences it is making through planning and commissioning.
As a result of the Member’s questions the following points were made:
Martin Gocke, Pupil Referral Unit Representative raised the following points and concerns:
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Local Authority Budget Proposals for 2017/18 - Tabled Report PDF 404 KB Minutes: As part of the council’s consultation process the Forum was presented with a report on the local authority budget proposals for 2017/18. At the time of the report the Provisional Local Government Financial Settlement had not been announced. As the Council had accepted the Government offer of a 4 year funding settlement in September 2016 it was anticipated that funding would be inline with the indicative 2017/18 figures received on 8 February 2016. David Watkins, Chief Officer, Children, Young People and Learning (CYPL) advised members that the report set out the overall financial arrangements and proposals for next year and that comments were sought in particular on the proposed changes for CYPL in respect of the revenue budget and capital programme.
The Forum was reminded that they were consulted yearly and the report was part of the formal consultation process. Any comments submitted would be fed to the Executive on the 14 February 2017 and Full Council on the 1 March 2017.
The Council had a legal obligation to set a balanced budget and this had been done through identifying the known commitments, service pressures and efficiency savings. In the face of significant reductions in grants to Local Authorities, a Transformation Board had been set up in October 2015 to develop and deliver a programme of work which would review the focus and delivery of services across the Council as one of the mechanisms to find savings to close the £26m budget gap in the medium term financial strategy.
There was a budget gap of approximately £5m in 2017/18 financial year, Elected members would be asked to adopt all or any of the proposed approaches in order to bridge the gap. These included: · An increase in Council Tax · An appropriate contribution from the council’s revenue reserves. · Identifying further expenditure reductions.
Members commented that they looked forward to playing an active roll in the next 12/18 months in assisting CYPL in the cost savings for the next finical year.
David Watkins, welcomed a more active roll from the Forum going forward.
RESOLVED that the Schools Forum comment on the 2017/18 budget proposals of the Executive for Children, Young People and Learning Department in respect of:
1) The revenue budget (Annexes B and C), and 2) The capital programme (Annex D)
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Dates of Future Meetings 9 March 2017 20 April 2017 22 June 2017 13 July 2017 14 September 2017 19 October 2017 7 December 2017 18 January 2018 22 March 2018 19 April 2018 Minutes: The Forum noted that future meetings would be held on the following dates:
9 March 2017 20 April 2017 22 June 2017 13 July 2017 14 September 2017 19 October 2017 7 December 2017 18 January 2018 22 March 2018 19 April 2018
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