To elect a Chairman for the ensuing year.

RESOLVED: That Mrs J Rees be elected as Chairman of the Forum for the ensuing year.

(Mrs J Rees in the chair.)

Apologies were received from Miss C Elsey (formerly Mrs C Woods), Mr M Farmer, Ms A Jackson, Mrs R Lloyd and Mr P Whitcombe.

There were no named substitutes.

There were no declarations of interest.

To elect a Vice-Chairman for the ensuing year.

RESOLVED: That Mrs S Catlow-Hawkins be elected Vice-Chairman of the Forum for the ensuing year.

To approve and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 5 June 2015.

RESOLVED:   That the Minutes of the meeting held on 5 June 2015 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To elect a Chairman of the Budget Working Group for the ensuing year.

RESOLVED:  That Mr N Griffiths be elected as Chairman of the Budget Working Group for the ensuing year.

To receive an update on membership.

The Forum received an update on Membership.

The Forum was informed that the review of its membership was almost complete.  It was noted that a confusion had arisen over the appointment of maintained school governors and it was intended to resolve this before the next meeting.  There was one maintained Primary School vacancy to be filled.  However, the principal matter for the Forum to consider was how it wished to amend its membership following the disbandment of the 14-19 Partnership.

A view was expressed that the Forum’s membership was too large in number and a reduction to 26 members should be agreed. 

The Assistant Director, Education and Commissioning suggested that the work of the task and finish groups appointed to examine service areas might benefit from seeking specific representation from other bodies, for example, in the High Needs area, representation from sixth forms. There might therefore be advantage in keeping the matter under review pending feedback from this work.

A motion to reduce the membership to 26 was lost.

RESOLVED: That consideration of a permanent reduction in the Forum’s membership be reviewed in the light of the work of task and finish groups.

To consider the report of the Budget Working Group on the following matters: results of the schools budget consultation and submission of provisional school budget to the Education Funding Agency(EFA), forecasts of high needs expenditure for 2015/16 and 2016/17 and the use of Dedicated Schools Grant balances.

The Forum considered the report of the Budget Working Group (BWG) on the following matters:  results of the schools budget consultation and submission of provisional school budget to the Education Funding Agency (EFA), forecasts of high needs expenditure for 2015/16 and 2016/17 and the use of Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) balances.

The Chairman of the Budget Working Group thanked members of the Group for their work and officers for their support.  He commented that the Group continued to support the Forum’s strategy of moving towards the expected National Funding Formula.  Whilst some schools considered the pace of change was too fast others thought it too slow.   It needed to be acknowledged that every school could make a case for more funding but that was not realistic. 

An observation was made that the most recent consultation exercise with schools on the National School Funding Formula 2016/17 had not generated a large response.  It was noted that the BWG could only assume that those who had chosen not to reply were broadly supportive of the strategy.

The School Finance Manager presented the report.  He highlighted the following points on the National School Funding Formula (NFF):

·        He commented on the response to the questions in the consultation exercise in turn.  He noted that, whilst the responses were overall in support of the proposals, there had been opposition by some maintained primary schools to the reduction in the primary lump sum as part of the move towards the national average primary:secondary funding ratio.

·        It was of concern that more schools had not responded to the consultation exercise and attended the consultation meetings.  However, no alternative proposals had been advanced either in the written responses or at the consultation meetings.

·        The DfE continued to advise that authorities should benchmark their funding values as part of the move to a national funding formula.  He drew attention to the benchmarking statistics for basic per pupil entitlement at key stage 3 and key stage 4, deprivation funding and prior attainment funding and the primary:secondary funding ratio.  He outlined how the budget proposals were moving the authority towards the average NFF values. In relation to funding on deprivation, which was higher than the DfE’s fair funding assessment, he commented that consideration might be given in 2017/18 to transferring some funding to basic pupil funding in order to help those schools that received little extra funding other than the basic minimum.

·        In terms of the primary lump sum he noted that this was higher than five of the authority’s statistical comparators.   

·        The BWG had considered that the consultation response required no amendment to the budget proposals.

A member of the Forum commented that of twelve maintained primary schools who had responded to question 1 in the consultation paper relating to the change in the primary:secondary funding ratio, seven schools had supported the change and five had opposed it.  The authority had traditionally recognised the need to provide support to small rural schools acknowledging that they had higher  ...  view the full minutes text for item 222.

To seek the Forum’s agreement on the proposed terms of reference for the looking to the future task and finish groups.

The Forum’s agreement was sought on the proposed terms of reference for the “looking to the future” task and finish groups

The groups had been established in response to pressures on the education provision and funding streams in Herefordshire.

The report invited the Forum to consider how best to involve school governors in the task and finish group process.  The School Finance Manager suggested that interim proposals from the groups could be sent to Herefordshire Governors Association for comment and governor representatives on Schools Forum could be invited to contribute to the work of relevant Groups as appropriate.

A suggestion was made that a fifth task and finish group should be established to consider small rural schools.  The majority view was that a separate group was not required and that the task and finish groups would consider issues faced by all schools.

RESOLVED:

That (a)     the terms of reference for the task and finish groups as set out in the                 report be approved; and

          (b)     interim proposals from the groups be sent to Herefordshire Governors Association for comment and governor representatives on Schools Forum be invited to contribute to the work of relevant groups as appropriate.

To consider the Forum’s Work programme.

The School Finance Manager highlighted the report due on special needs funding in January 2016, the review of school budget plans identified for March, to be preceded by a third letter on the “looking to the future” theme inviting the submission of budget plans and savings proposals; the scheduling of reports from the looking to the future task and finish groups in May/June and the DfE consultation on the National Funding Formula expected in summer 2016.

The Forum noted its work programme.

The following meeting dates have been scheduled:

4 December 2015 – 9.30 am

15 January 2016 – 9.30 am

11 March 2016 – 9.30 am

It was agreed that the Forum’s meeting scheduled for 4 December 2015 should be cancelled due to lack of business.