Apologies were received from Wendy Bradbeer, Sara Catlow-Hawkins, John Docherty, Martin Farmer, Jonathan Godfrey, Nigel Griffiths and Lynn Johnson.

None

To receive any declarations of interest by Members in respect of items on the Agenda.

None

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 13 January 2017.

Resolved:

that the minutes of the meeting of 13 January 2017 be approved and signed by the chairman as an accurate record.

To receive the report of the Budget Working Group on the following topics:

·         Special school funding;

·         National school funding formula consultation draft response;

·         Education services grant transitional funding;

·         High needs budget proposals for 2017/18 and the impact on the early years hourly rate for 3 and 4 year olds;

The chairman of the budget working group was unable to attend the meeting and had submitted written comments. In his note he thanked the schools finance manager and the clerk to the meeting for facilitating the working party and thanked the members of the budget working group for their hard work in the previous two meetings, which had been very detailed and focused. He also thanked the head teachers of the special schools for sharing their information with the group.

The schools finance manager briefed the meeting on the activities of the budget working group as set out in the report. The following key points were highlighted.

Special School Funding

An independent report had been commissioned from Mr Mark Whitby of Acuity Education to determine if the funding received by Herefordshire special schools was fair compared to statistical neighbours and if the expenditure on staffing was reasonable compared to other special schools.

The final version of the report had been received and was unchanged from the draft which had been circulated with the agenda papers. The special school heads had accepted the report as accurate and helpful.

The schools finance manager highlighted the benchmarking tables on pages 25 to 27 of the agenda pack to be particularly helpful in setting the situation in each school in context. Benchmarking for Brookfield had been difficult due to lack of comparator data.

The conclusion of the report was that Barrs Court, Blackmarston and Brookfield received reasonable levels of income but that Westfield had a low level of income per pupil compared to statistical comparators. It was intended that the low funding allocated to Westfield be investigated further.

Mrs Bailey thanked the budget working group for allowing the special school representatives to attend the meetings. She commented that the original data used in the report had been captured prior to a restructure at Blackmarston and that updated data had been submitted. She also noted that statistical comparators were not always the same category of school. The special school representatives had been pleased to meet with Mr Whitby and supported his judgements that the level of funding to the special schools was reasonable.

It was resolved that:

the conclusions of the independent review of special schools funding as set out by Mr Whitby in his report be endorsed and in particular that the low funding allocated to Westfield school be investigated further.

National School Funding Formula

The schools finance manager briefed the meeting on the proposed joint local authority and schools forum response to the DfE stage 2 consultation. The response was due by 22 March 2017.

Letters had been sent to the county’s two MPs highlighting the council’s concerns over the proposed national formula and other schools funding issues. The letters were identical except for the example schools used, which were selected from the relevant constituency. The local authority would continue to lobby for support from the county MPs. Individual schools were encouraged to make their own representations.

The schools finance manager confirmed that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 266.

To receive a report from the high needs task and finish group.

The head of additional needs introduced the report. He reminded the members of the forum that the high needs task and finish group was one of four established some time previously. Its purpose was to look at pressures and possible solutions relating to provision for pupils with high needs. A paper had been circulated at the January 2017 schools forum for reading and feedback. The paper before the forum at this meeting was broadly the same but reworked to make it easier to follow.

It was noted that no specific funding was allocated to this task, with resources needing to be found from savings elsewhere or by making a specific business case to the forum. However most of the actions identified by the task and finish group require time and thought only.

The head of additional needs highlighted the growth in special school places in Herefordshire of 38% over 5 years, compared to 12-15% growth nationally. This rate of growth could not continue. The task and finish group was split into smaller working groups to consider 5 key areas:

a)    the number of special school places needed

b)    the provision in mainstream schools

c)    improving the offer for young people with SEND post 16

d)    preventing the need for high cost residential placements, particularly for ASD/LD and challenging behaviour

e)    improving early years provision to prevent later underachievement and cost

The head of additional needs thanked his co-chair, Sara Catlow-Hawkins, and those who had participated in the task and finish group.

The proposals from each of the 5 key areas were then considered in turn. The following key points and comments were made:

Section A – the number of special school places needed

·         a figure of a maximum of 1.2% of the predicted overall 2-19 school population for 2021 was proposed to determine the number of special school places required, this reflected the national average and was close to the existing number of places

·         this would allow growth room to 2021

·         it was difficult to predict what demands would emerge, for example improvements in medical technology had led to better survival rates for premature babies and this was now reflected in the number of two and three year olds requiring support

·         advances in medicine only accounted for a proportion of growth, considered to be around 5% nationally

·         mainstream provision needed to be considered alongside special schools and ensure that pupils were in the right setting for their needs and that mainstream was meeting need appropriately

·         there was engagement with the child and adolescent mental health service but some input was later than officers would like, work was taking place across the board on mental health strategies to provide earlier intervention as well as the CAMHS Tier 3 service.

Section B - the provision in mainstream schools

·         there had not been a recent focus on an inclusive ethos in schools and it was proposed that a restatement of this approach should take place

·         the SENCO network had been reinvigorated and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 267.

To consider the work programme for 2017/18 and proposed dates for forum meetings.

The chairman briefed members of the forum on the forthcoming dates of meeting for 2017/18 and the intended work programme for the June 2017 meeting.

The chairman reported that the work of the outcomes task and finish group and the capital task and finish group had been overtaken by other developments, namely the planned changes to the school funding formula and the Herefordshire schools capital investment strategy. Consequently the chairman proposed that these groups were not expected to report further to the forum and should be removed from the work programme.

Resolved that:

a)    the dates for meetings of the schools forum during the 2017/18 municipal year be agreed; and

b)    the work programme for the schools forum for 2017/18 be agreed, subject to the comments made in relation to the outcomes and capital task and finish groups