Agenda and minutes

To agree the procedures for the operation of remote meetings.

RESOLVED -

THAT the guidance be noted.

To note the Schools Forum membership list and any updates.

Nick Hewlett, Chair of Governors of at Hawley Primary School, was a new member of Schools Forum.

RESOLVED -

THAT the membership list be noted.

Apologies hadbeen receivedfrom Jen Allan, Nick Hewlett and

Perina Holness.

There were no declarations.

Broadcast of the meeting

The Chair to announce the following: ‘In addition to the rights by law that the public and press have to record this meeting, I would like to remind everyone that this meeting is being broadcast live by the Council to the Internet and can be viewed on our website for twelve months after the meeting. After that time, webcasts are archived and can be made available upon request.

If you have asked to address the meeting, you are deemed to be consenting to having your contributions recorded and broadcast, including video when switched on, and to the use of those sound recordings and images for webcasting and/or training purposes’. 

Any other announcements

Broadcast of the meeting

The Chair announced the following: “In addition to the rights by law that the public and press have to record this meeting, I would like to remind everyone that this meeting is being broadcast live by the Council to the Internet and can be viewed on our website for six months after the meeting. After that time, webcasts are archived and can be made available upon request.

If you have asked to address the meeting, you are deemed to be consenting to being filmed and to the use of those images and sound recordings for webcasting and/or training purposes. If you are addressing the Committee your contribution will be recorded and broadcast.”

To consider and approve the minutes of the meeting held on 1 November 2023.

RESOLVED -

THAT the minutes of the last meeting held on 1 November 2023 be approved as a correct record.

There was no urgent business.

Report of the Head of Education Commissioning and School Organisation.

At the recent November meeting, forum was presented with the results of the consultation document sent to schools relating to the funding arrangements for 2024/25. There were no major objections raised from the consultation and forum confirmed its agreement of the funding formula to be used for the distribution of funds to schools for 2024/25.This report indicates the latest estimate of funding for the schools Designated Schools Grant (DSG) block by school – (as updated on 6^th October by Education Schools Funding Agency (ESFA) from their  earlier figures indicated in the September Forum report) and seeks schools forum’s agreement on the amount of DSG de-delegation for next year.

The individual schools figures are at this stage only indicative of the notional National Funding Formula (NFF) figures to be allocated to the overall schools budget for distribution by the Council via Camden’s local formula. Final individual school budgets will be released to schools pending update of ESFA data (with the recent October 2023 census data) and its application to the local Camden schools’ formula using the Authority Planning Tool (APT). This is expected in late December 2023.

The report also gives initial forecasts of the 2023/24 Early Years and High Needs DSG outturn, future budgets requirements planned DSG spending.

The report also outlines current and future cost pressures on schools and high needs budgets.

This report was completed prior to any further announcements by the ESFA regarding schools national funding formula proposals. Officers will provide an oral update to the forum on any intervening development in schools’ funding at the meeting.

Consideration was given to the report of the Head of Education Commissioning and School Organisation.

Victor Saunders, Team Leader Schools and Designated Schools Grant (DSG), introduced the report which updated the Forum in the following areas: primary and secondary schools formula funding available for distribution to schools 2024/25; central school services block (CSSB); Camden local formula and the historic and planned use of school block DSG reserve; the effects of the Education Schools Funding Agency (ESFA) miscalculation and republication of 2024/25 national funding formular (NFF);  notional NFF funding allocations to schools for 2024/25; de-delegation of funding; academies and free schools; high needs DSG block and the 2023-2024 provisional forecast of high needs spending and future HNB for 2024/25; Early Years DSG block funding for 2023/24 and 2024/25; Pupil Premium and Pupil Premium Plus; and recent funding announcements.

The Chair thanked officers for their report and invited questions and comments from the Forum. The following was discussed:

·       In relation to section 8.5, Teachers Pay Additional Grant (TPAG) 2023/24, a member asked if there was an additional mechanism which special schools could apply for to access the pay award, due to the differing funding formula. It was confirmed there was not currently a route the Council was aware of, but one might be introduced. Officers would provide a fuller update on the query outside of the meeting.

Action By - Team Leader Schools and DSG

·       In relation to section 2(d), it was confirmed that if the contingency of £0.240m to cover extra costs of bulge classes and changes in pupil numbers (where funding regulations allow extra funding to be given) were not spent, the money would go into the DGS reserves.

·       In relation to section 7.13 to 7.22, Homes for Ukraine Education and Childcare Grant 2022/2023 final payment and the Afghanistan Resettlement (Education) Grant 2022 to 2023, it was confirmed that the funding was both back and forward looking, including schools who set up service delivery but were no longer involved in provision.  The grants were related to how many children were on roll. It was noted that the Afghanistan Settlement Grant scheme was less flexible to allocate to schools than the Ukrainian Grants.

RESOLVED -

THAT Schools Forum

a)    note the level of reserves to be used to support the funding allocations to schools as set out in paragraphs 1.10;

b)    note the provisional National Funding Formula allocations to individual schools discussed in the report in section 1.1 and set out in Appendix 1. Also, that these are only indicative National Funding Formula allocations and are not yet the final school budgets;

c)    note the current forecast spending plans and funding for the high needs and early years blocks as set out in sections 4 and 5 respectively;

d)    note the continued use of the CSSB replacement of the former top sliced amounts detailed in section 1.5;

e)    approve the de-delegated budgets as set out in section 2.1; and

f)      note the potential effects of the future funding and cost pressures  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Report of the Head of Education Commissioning and School Organisation.

Over the last 5 years there has been a significant reduction in demand for school places within Camden and the wider London area. Forecasts of pupil demand have also been created in times of unprecedented change and challenge for families in Camden. Specifically, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have fundamentally altered people’s lives and changed patterns of migration within central London and Camden Borough specifically. The impacts of these have reduced the anticipated level of demand for school places. These factors also created a significant degree of uncertainty, and a less stable environment in which to plan ahead. Our modelling aims to account for these as best as they can, but they also rely on assumptions of future trends that can only be accurately assessed over time.

In response to these changing local demographics the Council has taken a proactive approach to school place planning. Since 2018 the Council, in partnership with its family of schools, has removed 10 forms of entry from our reception intake, responding to a 24% reduction in birth rates across the borough. These difficult decisions including four school closures, the most recent being the closure of St Dominic’s Catholic Primary School, ensure that our family schools remain both sustainable and responsive to the needs of their communities.

Forecasts up to 2021 indicated a significant ongoing decline in pupil numbers. At that stage the Council indicated some caution in those figures as potentially over-estimating the ongoing impact of reduced migration caused by both Brexit and the Pandemic. In September 2021 and 2022 entry into the Boroughs Secondary and Primary Schools were above the forecast for those years and this is a positive position for Camden Schools. During this period Camden Schools also welcomed a large number of Afghan and Ukrainian Families as part of the Afghan resettlement programme and the Homes for Ukraine programme. Whilst a number of the pupils have relocated within the UK, a proportion have also settled within Camden and bolstered pupil numbers as a result. As the national position has stabilised and our local position has taken account of these trends our most recent forecasts indicate a more consistent position and now show an increase in pupil demand towards the end of the decade.

The forecast data does however still show supressed birth rates within London and Camden alongside the continued effect of reductions in families moving into Camden during the COVID period.

Primary:

The surplus over the reception year admission number is estimated to rise 7% in 2023/24 to 13% by the middle of the decade before falling to 4% by 2032/33.

Secondary:

The Secondary Year 7 surplus is estimated to increase from 10% in 2023/24 to 21% by 2032/3. 

This level of anticipated surplus provision within both phases does require responses overtime to ensure the sustainability of our school offer.

Ensuring Camden has the right number of school places is both the Council’s statutory responsibility and aligns  ...  view the full agenda text for item 9.

Consideration was given to the report of the Head of Education Commissioning and School Organisation.

Nick Smith, Head of Education Commissioning and School Organisation, introduced the report. The following points were highlighted:

·       There had been a fall in demand for school places in the previous 6-7 years and a number of Form Entries (FE) had been reduced. The decreasing demand position was due to a number of factors, including a falling birth rate, falling fertility rate, and the impact of migration in the pandemic period. This years’ report presented a better position, suggesting that many of those factors were stabilising. Additionally, the Council had managed the primary school estate to ensure they were in a mor sustainable position, which going forward would have an positive effect on the secondary sector. The secondary sector was also affected by other variable factors.

·       The estimated proportion of pupils attending secondary independent schools rose to 38% during the pandemic, from 34% in 2018/19. Recent analysis had shown this proportion fell to 32%.

·       A school place planning group had been established to sit alongside the High Needs Block (HNB) subgroup. This purpose of this group was to review pupil numbers, population data, demand factors and the school estate. There was potential for surplus mainstream school estate to be used for the high needs sector. The school place planning group was expecting to meet in January 2024 and a number of headteachers had come forward interested to participate and they were looking for more interested stakeholders to take part. School place planning was still a live issue and the Council had taken significant actions to address the position, which was not uniform across the borough. There would be more detailed work to follow the group’s work involving more stakeholders and schools.

The Chair thanked officers for their report and invited questions and comments from the Forum. The following was discussed:

·       In relation to section 5, independent school numbers, it was confirmed that Camden’s status was similar to statistical neighbours. It was also noted that Camden was a net importer of pupils. To attract more children into Camden schools, there had to be realism in which parents should be targeted, as there were many parents who would not engage with the state sector at all, but there were sections parents who were more on the fence and would be willing to be given the case for state education. Councillor Boyland, Cabinet Member for Best Start for Children and Families, stated that the Comms Team was working on promotional and digital work for Camden Schools, would be speaking to headteachers in January 2024 about the work, and there were ideas to engage a focus group. A digital marketing officer would be recruited to Camden Learning soon.

·       It was confirmed that Camden did benchmark with other boroughs and local authorities regularly and they were confident Camden schools had a strong offer.

·       Officers stated that Camden was active in monitoring and reviewing primary and secondary pupil numbers by focussing on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Report of the Head of Education Commissioning and School Organisation.

This report provides an update on the position of the 2023/24 HNB and some initial comments about the 2024/25 allocation.

Consideration was given to the report of the Head of Education Commissioning and School Organisation.

Jessica Juon, Interim Head of SEND and Inclusion, introduced the report. The report covered the following areas: 2023/24 HNB funding update; HNB Outturn from 2020/21 with updated 2023/24 projection; and the 2024/25 settlement and the use of reserves.

The Chair thanked officers for their report and invited questions and comments from the Forum. The following was discussed:

·       In relation to section 3.2, members noted that whilst it was important to use funds from reserves for one-off capacity projects, the acute current needs of schools had to be balanced. A member said that schools needed money now for provisions for SEND children because deprivation and SEND needs were increasing. The member stated their school applied to a charity for a sensory room, and they would like to see these projects funded by the surplus in HNB reserves instead. In response, officers stated they would pick up this specific case offline with the member. In a more general response, it was stated that there was a national challenge in how bandings worked and disparities between them across the country. Camden discharged funding before the statutory Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) level, but it was a key piece of learning for the authority in seeing how well funding was being discharged. A sensory room could not be funded using HNB reserve money, however there was a SEND capital extension grant pot which could be explored. Officers confirmed there would be comms on how that funding could be equitably used.

Action By – Interim Head of SEND and Inclusion

·       It was confirmed that the first HNB subgroup took place on 30 November which discussed the Camden HNB context with different school leaders, primary and secondary representatives, special educational needs and/or disabilities coordinators (SENCO), and alternative provision colleagues.  The purpose of the first meeting was to provide context with funding methodology, discuss where the challenges and opportunities were, work with special providers, and to discuss school place planning and the school estate within the Camden context. Educational Needs Grants (ENG) were a key point of discussion, and it was recognised that whilst Camden was nationally recognised for this work, ENGs did not always work across the whole piece as desired. ENGs were a good way of distributing funding quickly, but an EHCP was the correct route for children and young people who had needs to be met for the life course of their education. The next meeting would focus on clusters, ENGs, and discuss an advisory service to ensure the sustainability of the HNB. The session was used to receive feedback from school leaders in how to refine the system. Officers confirmed the membership of the HNB subgroup and the minutes and actions from the first meeting would be circulated.

Action By – Director of Education Commissioning and Inclusion

·       A member stated that they appreciated the speed of being able to access ENG funding, because there was frustration in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

Report of the Head of Education Commissioning and School Organisation.

Camden Council reported to Schools Forum in September 2023 concerning the ongoing consideration of future School Meals contract.

The following presentation sets out the Council’s current position with regard to the future of school meals delivery and the range of options available to the Council.

Consideration was given to the report of the Head of Education Commissioning and School Organisation.

Nick Smith, Head of Education Commissioning and School Organisation, introduced the report. The presentation covered the following areas: the current central contract; future service delivery models, and school input into decision-making. The following points were highlighted:

·       The Council had been seeking various legal views on how an in-house service could be provided.

·       It was noted that the cost implications of any service procured had to be carefully considered in the context of the borough, costs could not be passed on to schools, and the quality of the food had to be maintained.

·       There would be engagement and consultation with schools on the options within the next few months.

·       In response to members, it was confirmed that the timeline of activity was tight. The decision would report to Cabinet before the end of the financial year with a strategy for development. Following Cabinet, long-term engagement would commence before a new contract.

The Chair thanked officers for their report.

RESOLVED -

THAT Schools Forum note the current position and the time-line of activity over the next period.

To consider and note the Schools Forum forward plan.

Schools Forum members requested an update on school food provision at the next meeting.

The forward plan was noted.

To note the remaining meeting dates of the academic year:

·       6 February 2024

·       4 June 2024

Theremaining meeting datesof the 2023-24academic yearwere noted:

·       6 February2024

·       4 June2024

There was no urgent business.