Agenda item

To provide an update on the responses from the recent financial consultation from schools which sought views on the approach to setting a minimum increase in per pupil funding from 2022-23 and also whether maintained schools supported on-going de-delegation of budgets and making a financial contribution to statutory education related duties for which the council is responsible for meeting but receives no funding.

The Forum considered a report which updated on the responses from the recent financial consultation from schools which sought views on the approach to setting a minimum increase in per pupil funding from 2022-23 and also whether maintained schools supported on-going de-delegation of budgets and making a financial contribution to statutory education related duties for which the council was responsible for meeting but received no funding.

RESOLVED

1.     to NOTE the outcomes from the financial consultation with schools as summarised in the supporting information and Annex 1; and

2.     that the Executive Member for Children, Young People and Learning (CYPL) is asked to AGREE that:

i.     all schools should receive the maximum +0.5% increase in per pupil funding from the 2022-23 financial year.  subject to affordability; and

ii.   any cost associated with providing all schools with the agreed minimum percentage increase in per pupil funding from 2022-23 should be met by those schools receiving the largest increases in per pupil funding, typically those above the average percentage increase.

Item for Maintained Primary School representatives only

RESOLVED to AGREE the continued de-delegation of budgets for the services requested by the council.

Item for Maintained Secondary School representatives only

As there was no maintained secondary school representative present.  the question whether to AGREE the continued de-delegation of budgets for the services requested by the council would be deferred to the next meeting of the forum, when Keith

Grainger would be asked to confirm his approval of the proposed action.  Action: Keith Grainger

Items for all Maintained School representatives (including Special and PRU) only

RESOLVED to AGREE that a £20 per pupil contribution continues to be made by maintained schools towards the cost of delivering ‘general’ education related statutory and regulatory duties.

AOB

Update on SRPs

Nathan Jones updated that the Service Level Agreements had been sent to all relevant schools for consideration and sign-off.  Nathan had started the review of the Meadow Vale SRP and had started working with health colleagues and the Parent Carer Forum.  Nathan had also started to engage with all the SRP Headteachers to identify their training needs.  Nathan had emailed secondary Headteachers to find out if they were interested in hosting an SRP.  Regarding the banding tool, there was a plan to run 50% of the EHCP cohort through the new banding tool which Nathan and Paul would moderate and cross-reference against the current banding levels.  Nathan would present a more detailed report to the Forum at the next meeting on 8 December.

Action: Nathan Jones

Restructuring of SEND services

Cheryl Eyre explained that the SEN statutory services had been restructured earlier in the year following a transformation project.  However, the service as a whole area still needed review and, following feedback from schools, a number of models had been developed.  A final model had been developed and was currently being consulted on.  The proposed structure included additional capacity; there would be one Head of Service supported by an additional layer of strategic leads directly managing the different teams.  Additional posts had or would be created to fill identified gaps, including a post-16 SEND officer, a participation officer to work with SEND families outside of schools, and a dedicated officer to strengthen the work around tribunals and ensure that learning was shared quickly following tribunals.  The council had committed to significant additional investment in SEND services and the structure would be aligned to the Written Statement of Action (WSOA). 

The Forum noted that responses to the consultation were needed by 1 December 2022, and this was not a long time to consider the plans.  It was also noted that the documents had only been sent out to Headteachers and that there were members of the Forum who were not Headteachers who would therefore have even less time to respond.  Cheryl agreed to send out the documents to the Forum. 

Action: Cheryl Eyre

The Forum asked why some of the new posts were only for two years.  Cheryl replied that national SEN reforms were expected in two years’ time and there was a need to ensure that whatever we have got in place aligns with those reforms.  We could not wait two years before putting in new posts, but there was a need to factor in a review period in case further changes were needed following the SEN reforms.  Therefore, the new posts would be reviewed in 2024. 

The Forum asked whether there was going to be any redundancy.  Cheryl replied that there was potentially one post that would be deleted as it had been a combined post and would be split into two managers. 

The Forum queried where the funding was coming from for the specialist English as an Additional Language (EAL) teacher.  Cheryl replied that this was due to be funded by the Ukrainian refugee funding that was allocated directly to the council.  However, the service had not been able to recruit someone with the right skills. 

The Forum expressed that there was an unfair distribution of funds for Ukrainian children placed in schools in the Borough.  as only those from the Homes for Ukrainian children scheme got the additional funding as opposed to those who arrived on family Visas.  Councillor Barnard and Cheryl Eyre agreed to take that forward. 

Action: Councillor Barnard and Cheryl Eyre

Autumn Statement

Paul Clark highlighted the following from the Autumn Statement:

·   There would be an extra £4.6bn in the core schools’ budget in the next 2 years;

·   There would be a 3.5% cash increase in the core school budget in 24/25 compared to previously published figures; and

·   The Institute of Fiscal Studies commented that It restored 2010 levels of per pupil funding in real terms and provided an average cash increase for every pupil of more than £1,000 by 2024-25 compared to 2021-22.

Membership

A new trade union representative had joined the Forum and would be attending the next meeting.  There were currently four vacancies: one primary governor, one secondary governor, one 16-19 provider, and one member from a pupil referral unit.