To: Schools Forum
10 March 2022
Schools Forum – Constitution & Membership March 2022
Executive Director: Delivery
1 Purpose of Report
1.1 To seek endorsement to minor changes to the Schools Forum’s Constitution and Membership.
2 Recommendation
2.1 That the revised Schools Forum Constitution and Membership be endorsed.
3 Reasons for Recommendation
3.1 To reflect an increase in academisation.
4 Alternative Options Considered
4.1 The Forum could reject the recommendations but would need to justify any alternative proposals.
5 Supporting Information
5.1 Following Sandhurst School converting to an academy and Debbie Smith consequently needing to resign as a maintained school rep, the membership structure of the Forum has been reviewed and set out in Annex 1. The change proposed is that the academy representatives should be increased from four to five, with a reduction of one maintained secondary head. The revised membership structure ensures a better balance of Forum members between academies and maintained schools, based on relative pupil numbers in each phase.
5.2 It has also been decided to remove the diocesan authority place as they have not attended for many years.
5.3 The School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations 2021 amended The Schools Forums (England) (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 to make permanent provisions to enable Schools Forum meetings to be held remotely. This has also been reflected in the Constitution.
5.4 In addition, references to Chairman and Vice-Chairman have been changed to the gender-neutral Chair and Vice-Chair to reflect a commitment to equalities.
5.5 With the new membership structure, there are currently vacancies for an academy and secondary governor representative, as well as of the 16-19 Partnership. The two primary governors are also due for re-election (or replacement) having been rolled forward due to lack of other nominees and the pandemic. The election process will be conducted during the spring term. It is hoped that all vacancies will have been filled by the autumn term.
6 Consultation and Other Considerations
Legal Advice
6.1 Nothing to add to the report.
Financial Advice
6.2 Not applicable.
Equalities Impact Assessment
6.3 The opportunity has been taken to ensure the Constitution uses only gender-neutral language.
6.4 Since being able to meet remotely, attendance has generally been better with those juggling busy schedules having the opportunity to drop in without any time wasted travelling to the meeting.
Strategic Risk Management Issues
6.4 There are no issues.
Climate Change Implications
6.6 The recommendations in Section 2 above are expected to have no impact on emissions of CO2. If, however, meetings were to revert to in-person again, there would be an impact with participants travelling to and from meetings at Time Square.
Health & Wellbeing Considerations
6.7 The opportunity to continue meeting remotely, reduces the need for members to travel between their existing location and Time Square, which may involve rushing and traffic delays etc and therefore may make in-person meetings a more stressful event.
Background Papers
None.
Contact for further information
Derek Morgan, Democratic Services - 01344 352044
derek.morgan@bracknell-forest.gov.uk
Paul Clark, Resources – 01344 354054