Agenda and minutes

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.

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the forum held on 16 November be agreed as a correct record.

Arising from the minutes the following point was noted:

• Arising from minute 15, Duanne Chappell confirmed she had emailed the early years sector and confirmed when they will be heavily involved in any work affecting their sector.

To update the Schools Forum on the initial Safety Valve proposal to be submitted by Bracknell Forest Council to the Department for Education by 15 December 2023 and to report responses from schools to a consultation on the council’s proposal to secure a transfer of the equivalent of 1% of the schools block funding into the High Needs Block, while capping the impact on any individual school budget to a maximum of 0.5%. 

The Forum considered a report which sought to update the Schools Forum on the initial Safety Valve proposal to be submitted by Bracknell Forest Council to the Department for Education by 15 December 2023 and to report responses from schools to a consultation on the council’s proposal to secure a transfer of the equivalent of 1% of the schools block funding into the High Needs Block, while capping the impact on any individual school budget to a maximum of 0.5%.

Paul Clark informed the Forum that the paper outlined the transformational savings that Bracknell Forest Council believed could be made. It was also highlighted to the Forum that a supplementary paper had been published which outlined the responses of schools to the consultation off the Safety Valve. Over 60% of schools within Bracknell Forest had replied to the consultation. 21 schools supported the proposals and two schools disagreed. A further two schools submitted a response after the consultation deadline, both of which also supported the proposals. However, it was noted that there were many comments from schools outlining they had only accepted the proposals reluctantly. Feedback on comments raised in the proposal would be sent out to schools. (Action Paul Clark)

Following the Forum’s questions and comments the following points were raised:

·   The current DSG deficit has been rolled forward in recent years through an unfunded reserve, however this would need repaying at some point and the Safety Valve has been put in place to ensure there is a planned approach to dealing with this deficit.

·   Bracknell Forest Council had considered other options, including not joining the Safety Valve programme.  Being in the programme would give the local authority more financial flexibility and support that would not be otherwise available.

·   The DfE’s approach means that the full details of the Safety Valve proposal could not be put into the public domain.

·   The Forum asked that its concerns around SEND funding were relayed to the DfE. Grainne Siggins offered to compile the concerns and submit them to political leaders on behalf of the Forum. (Action Grainne Siggins)

·   The Forum would be allowed to vote on the DSG budget each year.

·   Whilst the local authority projected the top slice to last for the duration of the Safety Valve programme, it has committed to reversing the top slice as a priority were the financial situation to improve in these 5 years.

·   Were the Forum to vote in favour of the top slice, the reduction in spending would run for no longer than the duration of the programme (6 years) and any continuation beyond this would have to return to the Forum for a vote.

·   Evidence suggests that most children could be best supported within a mainstream school environment.  The needs of other students would be met by investment into the specialist unit outreach programmes. It was also believed that earlier intervention would be important in helping pupils and relieving pressure on specialist resources.

·   The Forum raised concerns that reductions in spending would have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

The next meeting of the Forum will be held at 4.30pm on Thursday 11 January

The next meeting would take place on 11 January.