Apologies were received from Mrs J Cohn, Mr T Edwards, Mr M Farmer, Mrs L Johnson, Mr T Knapp and Mr M Lewis.

Dr R Patterson substituted for Mr T Knapp, Mr P Burbidge spoke on behalf of the governor representatives who were unable to attend.

None.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 12 January 2018.

Resolved: that the minutes of the meeting held on 12 January 2018 be approved as a correct record and signed by the chairman.

This report recommends actions for 2018/19 and 2019/20 to ensure high needs expenditure remains within budget for the next two financial years whilst a fundamental review of high needs services and costs is undertaken.

The item began with a presentation by the head of additional needs. The key points noted were:

·         the high needs budget for 2016/17 had not yet overspent and although warnings had been issued about a possible overspend based on forecasts it was hoped that spend for this year would come in on budget;

·         longer term forecasts projected difficulties if current level of demand continued;

·         there were a number of areas of growth in demand plus additional responsibilities which had been given to local authorities without significant increase in funding;

·         other authorities were reporting similar difficulties and many were already overspending on their high needs budget, Herefordshire was in a relatively good position but could not be complacent;

·         efforts were being made to ensure the point of entry to the system was robust - a headteacher and other senior school staff members had been added to the SEN referral panel, the principal education psychologist would be double checking referrals in addition to the caseworker and the SEN Team Manager, evidence requirements would be strictly applied and a period before reapplications could be made was being considered;

·         the descriptors in the matrix would be reviewed and made clearer over the summer term;

·         the service would consider trading some services, for example for hearing and visual impairment, but this would need to be carefully considered against the risks of pupils being overlooked if schools did not buy back services;

·         any changes to central services needed to be carefully considered - once removed they could be difficult to reinstate as specialist staff would move on and care needed to be taken to understand the interrelations between services to avoid unintended consequences for schools and pupils;

·         partnership working would be an important part of the way forward, options to be considered could include devolving some finance to partnerships of schools to manage on the basis that once funds were exhausted the partnership would need to make up any shortfall;

·         the vast majority of the high needs budget (approx. £8.5m out of £12.3m) was currently spent on commissioned places and top ups for mainstream, post-16 special schools and the PRU, if the budget was overspending on top ups it was unlikely that savings on the smaller items of spend would be sufficient to compensate.

The presentation was discussed and the following points made:

·         there was ongoing dialogue with headteachers both individually and through phase groups;

·         a recent conference on emotional wellbeing had discussed whole school approaches to social, emotional and mental health; any other forums to discuss this would be welcomed;

·         this was a national issue and efforts were being made to identify good practice and possible solutions from other authorities, however not all solutions would necessarily transfer easily to Herefordshire;

·         support from the health sector for pupils with medical needs was not always forthcoming - Health Care Plans should be made available to a school and some schools had reported difficulty getting advice – work was continuing to improve links;

·         the clinical support that had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

To receive a verbal update on progress in allocating the £890,000 underspend in dedicated schools grant funding for nursery education for two year olds.

Mrs Rees gave an update on the planned use of an under-spend of £890k from the 2 year old nursery funding. A group had been working on this for the last two years with the aim of proactively supporting early year’s children to stop issues escalating. Speech, language and communication had been identified as a significant area of difficulty and the majority of the funds would be focused on speech and language therapy plus a programme of support for families and some work with health visitors.

The necessary approvals for use of the under-spend had now been secured and the project would start after Easter to commission the required services with a roll out planned from September 2018. As the funds were limited there was a rigorous plan in place to ensure that the project did not overspend and there was also a focus on making the services self-sustaining in the longer term.

To agree the work programme for the Herefordshire Schools Forum for 2018/19 and to agree dates for future meetings.

The forum received the proposed work programme for the period May 2018 to May 2019 and the associated planned meeting dates.

Members of the forum were reminded that their current three year term of service would come to an end on 31 August 2018. Plans were being drawn up for elections for the next three year period. The forum would be asked to approve the timescales for the election at its meeting in July.

It was noted that it was likely that the DfE would make changes to the regulations governing schools forums as the hard national funding formula was brought in but that no information on this was currently available. Elections would be held on the basis of the current regulations, guidance and constitution of the forum. Any changes would be brought to the forums attention as and when they were announced.

Resolved that:

a)    the dates for meetings of the schools forum during the 2018/19 municipal year be agreed; and

b)    the work programme for the schools forum for 2018/19 be agreed.

Directed change to the LMS scheme

The schools finance manager updated the forum on a directed change to the LMS scheme which had just been announced. This restricted loans to schools by the local authority to capital purposes only. Current regulations stated that any loans taken out by local authority maintained schools were transferred in the event of academy conversion. This may change in the future for loans deemed as revenue by the Secretary of State.

Co-opted governors on children and young people scrutiny committee

The chair of the children and young people scrutiny committee informed the forum of a vacancy for a secondary governor representative. The contribution of co-opted members to the scrutiny function was recognised as important and forum members were asked to help find a suitable volunteer to fill the vacancy.