Agenda and minutes

The Forum noted the attendance of the following Substitute Member:

Debbie Smith as an Academy School Representative.

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or affected interests 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.

Any Member with an affected Interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting.  There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting.

The Chair declared an affected interest regarding Item 4 (2022-23 Proposals for the High Needs Block Budget) in relation to College Hall.  Debbie Smith also declared an affected interest as part of the Management Committee for College Hall.

The Chair declared an affected interest on behalf of Jenny Baker regarding Item 4 in relation to Kennel Lane School.

The Chair highlighted that, whilst Item 4 related to all schools, only College Hall and Kennel Lane School were named.  Liz Cole queried whether schools with Specially Resourced Provisions (SRPs) should declare an interest.  The Chair confirmed that Owlsmoor School was mentioned.  The Chair requested members of the Forum to use their discretion to declare any interests if they became evident during discussions later in the meeting.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of 10 March 2022.

The notes and views of headteacher representatives as reported at that meeting are also attached.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Forum on 10 March 2022 be approved as a correct record.

Following the previous meeting, the Chair expressed a desire to move forward constructively, listening to the outcomes from the subsequent discussion between the Council and the Headteachers.  Councillor Barnard added that it was a credit to all members of the Forum that discussions had happened in the short space of time since the last meeting.  Councillor Barnard reinforced that he takes seriously the views of the Forum. 

Most of the actions from the meeting held on 10 March 2022 were for the June 2022 meeting so would not be discussed at this meeting. 

Arising from minute 227, Paul Clark had met with Jenny Baker, Stuart Matthews, and Phil Sherwood. 

To seek comments on the detailed budget proposals for the High Needs Block element of the Schools Budget before the Executive Member makes the formal decision on the relevant matters.

The Forum considered a revised budget report which sought comments on the detailed budget proposals for the High Needs Block (HNB) element of the Schools Budget that were being presented now by the Council.  In line with the statutory funding framework, there were also a small number of decisions for the Forum to take.

Prior to presenting the report, Paul Clark provided an update from a regional seminar attended last week where the emerging strategy that Local Authorities (LAs) in the London Boroughs had adopted to tackle their HNB deficits.  Two Boroughs presented how they were working with the Department for Education (DfE) as part of the “safety valve” programme.  This programme had been created by the DfE and worked by agreeing medium-term action plans with the individual LAs.  As long as the LA could evidence that they were meeting their targets, the DfE were providing additional Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) income to help those LAs repay their deficit as they moved towards a balanced budget.  The DfE had been working with around 20 LAs as part of this programme.  The LAs that presented at the seminar had very similar deficits and challenges to Bracknell Forest Council (BFC): they both had £6m to £7m annual deficits and at the start of the programme had cumulative overspendings of £20m and £30m.  The expectation was to achieve balanced budgets by the end of the 5-year plans. 

Of particular note was that the action plans presented at the seminar, as agreed by the DfE, were similar to what BFC was planning; for example, supporting schools to meet a high level of need in a cost-effective way within mainstream settings, reviewing and reforming outreach services, expanding local specialist provision, improving efficiency of commissioning services, and managing demand for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) by scrutinising provision at each annual review.  The DfE were in the process of expanding the programme and BFC was due to be included in the next branch of the work which would include 55 LAs highlighting the widespread effect of the financial challenges being faced across the country. 

The Chair expressed that this sounded very encouraging and tied in with the aspiration of the Council and the Forum to work towards the medium-term plan.  Cheryl Eyre added that a previous seminar on the DfE “safety valve” programme was attended by Timothy Wheadon, Grainne Siggins and Stuart McKellar, and there was a commitment at the top level, supported by Councillor Barnard, to support this piece of work which would give rigour to what BFC was doing and make it accountable.  The Council wanted to get to a balanced budget and would do everything it could but needed to be joined by stakeholders to achieve that goal.

In presenting the budget report, Paul Clark thanked the Headteachers for attending the follow-up meeting.  Three main changes to the previous budget report were agreed for inclusion: further clarity and context on the SEND strategy, more details about the calculation of costs and savings  ...  view the full minutes text for item 232.

The next meeting of the Forum will be held at 4.30pm on Thursday 23 June 2022.

The Chair advised that there may be an extra meeting held in May 2022 to discuss the School Places Plan and Capacity Strategy.

The next scheduled meeting of the Forum would be held at 4.30pm on Thursday 23 June 2022.