Agenda and minutes

To note the list and any changes to the membership.

 The membership list and the vacancies that had been outstanding for some time were noted. Those members requiring re-nomination should contact the representative group that had nominated them.    

To Note: All

Apologies for absence had been received from Kate Frood and Margaret Harvey.

No declarations were made.

No announcements were made.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 3^rd December 2019.  

Consideration was given to the minutes of the last meeting and it was noted that in relation to discussions about school organisation, the minutes should reflect that all schools (including academy and free schools) were subject to the same school organisations proposals. The Forum was assured that this would be included in the next report on this matter.    

RESOLVED  

THAT the minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 3^rd December 2019 be approved.

To Note: All

It was also noted that there would be a report to the Council’s Cabinet meeting in April on the school place planning reorganisation of schools.

To Note: All

There was no urgent business.

Report of the Director of Early Intervention and Prevention, Supporting People    

The Local Authority has a current predicted overspend on its High Needs Block that will be alleviated in the short term as a result of the national allocations. However, in order to ensure long term sustainability and arrangements, which meet the needs of children and young people with SEND, we have commissioned an external consultant, Peter Grey to review the effectiveness of current High Needs spend, to help ensure best value and the greatest impact on outcomes for children, schools and families.

Mr Grey will be providing a verbal update to the forum in terms of his initial work so far and the expected direction of travel for the review.

The Local Authority had a current predicted overspend on its High Needs Block of £2m and was of the view that this overspend would be alleviated in the short term as a result of the national allocations. However, in order to ensure long term sustainability and arrangements, that met the needs of children and young people with SEND, Peter Grey had been commissioned to review the effectiveness of current High Needs spend, to help ensure best value and the greatest impact on outcomes for children, schools and families.

Peter Gray provided the Schools Forum with an update on the initial meetings that had taken place and particular areas of focus.   

Five years ago it had been anticipated that by now there would have been in place a national funding formula based on the historic funding levels of each authority. There had not been any changes in the funding levels to Camden but the borough was now faced with ongoing increases in the cost of funding for the High Needs Block (HNB) and wanted to be proactive in planning and considering the costs of the service.  The areas of focus for the review would include:

·         Specialist funding provision/independent non-maintained sector

·         Early years

·         Post 16, rise in spend of Education and Health Care Plans (EHCP) /Further Education colleges   

·         Primary Support – initiatives and how they were paid for

Work on the review had started two weeks ago and so far had included meeting with primary and secondary head teachers, SENCOs, Swiss Cottage Centre, Woodlands, officers, agencies, post 16 providers and parents in order to gather a wide ranging evidence base.  

The aim was to complete the review by the end of March and present the findings to the Schools Forum in April. This would mean scheduling an additional forum meeting before June.      

Action By: Clerk to the Schools Forum

In response to questions the Schools Forum was told that:

·         There were national design problems with the way Further Education (FE) was funded. The issue for London was that the student body of each FE provider were not all resident at the one local authority which made having a funding model complicated

·         The review would include an analysis of the ECHP appeals for the last 3 years. Was the system pupil led to the point where students of less informed parents were being disadvantaged

·         The concern 5 years ago was that there would be a £3-£5m funding cut. This time there were sufficient funds but the upward spending trend was increasing. This review would look at options to do better with the available funding

·         Having a  demand led framework was challenging and the aim was to ensure equity and transparency in the process  

·         As well as the meetings that had already taken place, there would also be meetings with providers to hear a diverse range of experiences. There would be a meeting with Early Years to look specifically at how Early Years and Special Education Needs and Disabilities were aligned.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Report of the Head of Education Commissioning and School Organisation, Supporting People

(a)          This report updates the schools forum on the estimated funding available for 2020/21 following the recent ESFA DSG finance settlement notification on 19^th December 2019, (section 2.1) and details the anticipated use of this money to fund schools (section 3.2), early years (section 3.7) and high needs (section 3.12)  

(b)          Total government funding is estimated at £196.17m and a breakdown of this figure is provided in the report. The largest single item of funding is the schools DSG block which has been confirmed at £109.94m (plus an additional £8.6m for Academies). Other elements of funding remain provisional although any change to the estimates is likely to be minor.

(c)          There have been no significant change to the Camden schools funding formula for 2020/21 which will be used to distribute the total of aggregated individual schools budgets generated by the National Funding Formula (NFF) in 2020/21. The government update of the October 2019 census and the IDACI deprivation is fully incorporated into next year’s 2020/21 budget.

(d)          Overall funding is set at £196.72m requiring nil funding to be used from reserves across all three blocks of DSG in order to fund the total proposed spending plans.

(e)          This funding excludes the ESFA grant top ups to schools relating to schools for the September 2018 and 2019 Teachers pay awards, the Teachers’ pension grant and  Teachers supplementary pension Grants. These are determined and paid to individual schools by LB Camden from the ESFA during the financial year based on roll data. Detailed guidance for each individual school has been dispatched to schools by LB Camden and is also available on this  ESFA website link.

Consideration was given to a report of the Head of Education Commissioning. The report provided an update on the estimated funding available for 2020/21 following the recent Education and Skills and Funding Agency, (ESFA)   Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) finance settlement in December 2019, including details of the anticipated allocation of the funds. 

The forum discussed the ongoing financial pressures on schools, the net decrease in school budgets and the assumption that schools will be able to continue to absorb budget decreases and meet pay increases with no implications for schools.      

RESOLVED

i)             THAT the latest estimates of schools and growth budgets (section 3.6) and Appendix 1 and 2 be noted and agreed.

ii)            THAT the provisional Early Years funding rates (section 3.9 ) be noted

To Note: All

To consider the Schools Forum work programme.

It was noted that there would be a special meeting of the Schools Forum to consider Peter Gray’s report on High Needs Block funding, Capital funding allocations, Early Years, Special Education Needs & Disabilities and school organisation.         

To Note: All

Action By: Head of Education Commissioning and School Organisation

To note that the next meeting will take place at 6pm on Tuesday 9^th June 2020.  

It was noted that there would be a special meeting of the Schools Forum

before the scheduled meeting that had been scheduled to take place on 9^th June 2020.  Members would be contacted about the new date.  

To Note: All

Action By: The Clerk to the Schools Forum

There was no urgent business.