Schools-Forum-Agenda-and-Papers-for-3-July-14

Department for Children, Adults and Health SCHOOLS FORUM Thursday 8 May 2014 Badminton Road Offices PRESENT: and Abbeywood Community SchoolsFr.Eugene Campbell Clifton Diocese CentreMark

Members of the Committee

Richard Badley John Goff

Dave Baker Geoff Howell

April Begley Janet Hoyle

Nicola Berry Keith Lawrence (Chair)

Tania Craig Sujata McNab

Fr.Eugene Campbell Jane Millicent

Victoria Fitzgerald Sara-Jane Watkins

Steve Forecast Susie Weaver

Mark Freeman Andrew Wild

Amanda Fry/Lisa Williams

Kim Garland Ann Reed (sub)

Peter Murphy, Director for Children, Adults and Health, Badminton Road

Offices, Yate, South Gloucestershire, BS37 5AF

Telephone (01454) 863253 E-mail peter.murphy@southglos.gov.uk

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1 WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS 5 mins

FUNDING

15 mins

INCLUDING SCHOOLS BALANCES AS AT 31 MARCH

2014

10 mins

FUTURE MEETINGS AND THE WORK PROGRAMME

2014/15

15 mins

Department for Children, Adults and Health

SCHOOLS FORUM Thursday 8 May 2014 Badminton Road Offices PRESENT:

and Abbeywood Community SchoolsFr.Eugene Campbell Clifton Diocese

CentreMark Dee Executive Head, The Park & Parkwall

PrimariesMark Freeman Headteacher, St Michael’s Primary School,

Stoke Gifford

School

Barley Close and Callicroft Primary Schools

Keith Lawrence Governor, Culverhill School

Jane Millicent Headteacher, Patchway Community College

Abbotswood Primary School

David Turrell, Headteacher, Sir Bernard Lovell SchoolJohnnie Walker South Gloucestershire & Stroud College

(representing Sara-Jane Watkins)

Chris Knight Principal Engineer, Property Services

(For item 6)

Other Attendees:

Attendees were welcomed by the Chair

April Begley, Richard Badley, Steve Forecast, Sujata McNab,

Susie Weaver, Victoria Fitzgerald, Sara-Jane Watkins

The Chair drew attention to the emergency evacuation procedure

None

The Minutes were agreed as a true record

Chris Knight, Principal Engineer, Property Services joined the meeting and summarised the three Invest to Save Energy Schemes that are available to schools These are Biomass, replacement of older

fluorescent lighting and solar photovoltaic systems

When asked if these schemes would be available to Academies, MD said he would need to check the legality of this

CK asked for comments back and then the scheme details would be reissued to schools

A new energy contract is due to be negotiated and a newsletter will be sent to schools later this year asking if they wish to sign up to this contract

Bristol Water are offering a free water usage audit and schools should receive a letter from them very soon

IN YEAR PUPIL TRANSFERS

MD said he had looked look at the movement of pupils from The

Grange to other schools since October 2013 There are two schools which have seen significant increases of transfers in from The Grange The two schools are Sir Bernard Lovell and King’s Oak Academy

David Turrell left the room at this point

entitlement rate (£3,774) to this difference, subject to this difference being greater than 16.

 This amount then to be allocated to the school in 2014-15

 This is to be funded from the expanding schools budget

The Schools Forum agreed the allocation of £11,000 to fund the

secondment of Will Roberts for an initial period of three months This was in order to look at the recommendations in depth and identify the way forward

A future report to come to the Schools Forum of the outcome of this piece of work It is noted that pump priming of approx £400k will be required to deliver the recommendations This funding could come fromthe underspend on the DSG 2013/2014

Schools Forum agreed in principal however no funds could be spent or released without the specific approval of the Schools Forum

2015/2016

This paper was for information only

should be looked at.

A consultation will be sent out to all schools in September 2014

submitted by the Chair of the Schools Forum

MD wanted to highlight the potential developments in the area of

Traded Services

Further updates will be provided as the developments progress

MD updated the Schools Forum on the Constitution from April 2014 The Schools Forum agreed to the following amendments:

 To rephrase the number of academy representatives, both Headteacher and governors, to be proportional to the number ofpupils being taught in academy schools

 To delete the requirement for a least one Headteacher , primaryand secondary , to be from a school with a resource base

 To delete the requirement that at least one primary Headteacher

be from a small school and to include the chair of the primary headteachers executive

 In respect of the PRU representative, item 3.4, delete governingbody and replace it with management committee This is

because the PRU has no governing body but a management committee

The current work programme was agreed Provisional dates need to beset for the next twelve months and agreed at the next meeting

Tania Craig to bring a paper to the next Schools Forum re formula funding for New Horizons, with an explanation why they are looking for support for a 12 month period

Meeting closed 18.00

NEW HORIZONS LEARNING CENTRE – LEVEL OF FUNDING

Under Any Other Business at the last meeting the Headteacher of New

Horizons Learning Centre raised the issue of formula funding for New

Horizons Learning Centre The Governors and Headteacher wished to bring

a paper to this meeting of the Schools Forum

The paper is attached and explains why the school is looking for support for additional funding for 2014/2015

RECOMMENDATION:

Members of the Forum are requested to consider the information presented and to decide what action they wish to take

NHLC was opened new in September 2011 – it was always envisaged by the

LA that the school would grow in numbers as each cohort year was added in each academic year The school opened with Years 3-6 at primary and Years 7-9 at secondary, with our first set of leavers in 2014

NHLC was never destined to be a huge school due to the specialist and complex needs of the students, with 15 students at the primary and 35 at the secondary (funding currently based on 43 places due to the staggered entry tothe school) Due to the challenging behaviours exhibited the staffing ratio is generous (2:7) with some students needing more intensive support for the short term of 1:1

When the funding model was originally designed for the BESD students, therewere two categories – standard and enhanced The LA made the decision to identify that there would be 35 standard and 8 enhanced places It was not a

‘needs led’ model as it is for the other special schools, but one where, those students who had more complex needs could be identified as needing an enhanced place

However we have consistently had more students in need of an enhanced place than we have had allocated places We had already identified that this funding system was not appropriate for the sustainability of the school, but didnot raise it as we were hoping that the new funding model that was due to

come into play this year would re-dress the balance However, as you are aware the special school heads were unable to accept the draft proposals thatwere put forward, as they were so significantly out of line with other LAs and would not have enabled them to meet staff:pupil ratios as described in the funding document

It was agreed by the special school heads, with Schools’ Forum’s support, to defer the new funding model until April 2015 and use the existing model to fund this financial year

This has put NHLC into a challenging position, as that original model does notgive either stability or sustainability to the school

As a result of the dis-aggregation of NHLC from the South Glos EOTAS

service, NHLC started the year 2013/14 with a deficit of £50,267 – with carefulfinancial budgeting we have been able to reduce this significantly Whilst our outturn for 2013 /14 showed a deficit of £51,018, this was immediately

reduced by £40,004 due to two outstanding receipts, from the previous year, being settled in early May after settling a dispute Therefore our carry forward deficit was £11,014

We have been hit by a reduction in funding this financial year of £103,566 (9%) compared to the previous year We have carefully planned our budget forecast, with our Schools Finance Officer but even with many savings and budgets cut to the bare bones we are anticipating a £149,670 deficit at the end of this year We have submitted a three year recovery plan, which would bring us back into the black by the end of the 3 year period

New Horizons Learning Centre has an overall loss of 4 students, which will affect funding, but is not enough of a drop to lose a member of staff Staffing isalready tight compared to students’ needs and statements, but there is an awareness that the budget will not support the full complement of staff, that is

needed to ensure appropriate ratios in classrooms and the intervention work which is specific to each child’s statement

Top up funding has been based on the existing funding formula used in

2013/2014 and has not been needs led Based on student need, 9 from the 24standard should be enhanced Therefore the places should be 15 standard and 15 enhanced to meet the needs of the students

As a comparator the SG EOTAS PRU, who have similar students, but who on the whole do not have a statement of educational needs are funded under a different model, under one top-up funding amount This amount, although lower than the BESD enhanced top up funding amount, is £3,000 higher than the BESD standard top up funding amount

If New Horizons Learning Centre was funded on the same rate as the PRU, which could be seen as the fairest and most equivalent way to fund the two provisions until the new banding structures are resolved, New Horizons

Learning Centre would be funded an additional £124,365.54

Alternatively, if NHLC based additional requested monies on ‘needs led’ places, this would give an additional £57,897.54 in top up funding

New Horizons Learning Centre are requesting a one off payment to meet the needs of the students, whilst we await the new banding structure for

2015/2016 onwards – and would request that you consider all the evidence

we have presented We would ask that you consider a figure that is mid way between the ‘needs led’ model and the SG EOTAS model, which would be a figure of £90,700 This would still leave us with an identified deficit, but this could be recoverable if we admit further students during the coming 12 month period

We do not wish our request to impact on other schools, and we are aware thatthere was a predicted £150,000 carry forward from the high needs funding

(Schools’ Forum 27th February 2014) and would hope that our requested amount could come from that funding stream.

Kind Regards

Tania Craig – Head Teacher

Ann Reed – Chair of Governors

John Goff – Chair of Resources Committee

The 2013/2014 end of year position on Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) is

£172.466 million against a grant of £173.299 million, an underspend of £833,000 (a negative 0.48%)

An analysis of the position for each service area is given below A table showing variances by policy budget head is shown at Appendix A

The following table gives details of main variances:

Revised Budget

Allocated to Schools &

When the 2013/14 DSG budget was set, it was implied by the EducationFunding Agency (EFA) that they would recoup costs from South Gloucestershire

to fund Wallscourt Farm Academy School A provision was made for therecoupment, however the EFA subsequently advised that there would be noclaw back of the DSG in 2013/2014 This has resulted in a DSG underspend of

£277,000 for this area

When the 2013/14 budget was set a provision was made for the revaluation ofrates for schools The individual schools rate charges were less thananticipated resulting in a DSG underspend of £119,000 for this area

High Needs Block

The high needs block outturn position is a £437,000 underspend

When the 2013/14 DSG was set, Abbeywood Resource Base was included forthe period April 2013 to August 2013 The EFA has made payment toAbbeywood Resource Base for this period and consequently, there is a DSGunderspend of £157,000 in this area

When the 2013/14 DSG budget was set, Post 16 provision for funded places was included, however the EFA has subsequently paid post 16 direct to Special Schools This has resulted in a £280,000 underspend in this area

Early Years Block

The early years block outturn position is a break even budget The key demandled areas are the two, three and four year old nursery education budgets

Education Commission

At the 8 May 2014 meeting, the Schools Forum considered an update report onthe Education Commission Members agreed to support a short term piece ofwork to look at the recommendations in depth and identify the way forward Areport will be presented at the September meeting of the Schools Forum Thedevelopmental funding required to progress the matters identified by theCommission would be in the order of at least £400,000 for the next 3 years and

it is anticipated that a request for funding will be made to the Schools Forum

It is a legal requirement that any DSG underspend or overspend is carried

forward to the new financial year The £833,000 underspend will be carried

Risk to 2014/15 and future year’s budgets

Pressures on Independent and Other Local Authority Special School Placementscan arise from increased numbers and / or complexity of individual cases Themitigation to this risk is to manage the required provision in the most costeffective way Possible pressures on the Post 16 High Needs budget in 2014/15will need to be managed by working closely with the DFE and colleges Thedemand for Nursery Education Grant payment to private providers can increase.The only mitigation to this risk is to identify future savings through management action on other budgets.

Property Capital

Progress on Current Schemes

Appendix C lists the planned and forecast completion dates, total approved scheme costs and details of spending against budget this year for projects with total scheme costs of greater than £100K

RECOMMENDATION

Members of the Forum are requested:

(a) Comment and consider this report;

(b) Consider how the underspend carried forward into 2014/2015 should be

utilised

APPENDIX A DEPARTMENT for CHILDREN, ADULTS & HEALTH

2013/14 DSG Budget v Outturn Financial Monitor

Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG)

2 High Needs Block:

 Schools & Independent

3 Early Years Block:

 Private, Voluntary &