To elect a chairman for the ensuing year.

The vice-chair of the forum opened the meeting and called for nominations for chairman.

Mrs S Bailey proposed and Mr P Deneen seconded the nomination of Mr A Evans.

Resolved:  that Mr A Evans be elected Chairman of the Forum for the ensuing year.

To elect a vice-chairman for the ensuing year.

Mr A Evans, Chairman, in the chair.

Mr P Deneen proposed and Mrs S Bailey seconded the nomination of Mrs J Cohn.

Resolved: that Mrs J Cohn be elected Vice-Chairman of the Forum for the ensuing year.

Apologies were noted from: Mr P Burbidge, Mr M Henton, Mr P Jennings, Mr T Knapp, Mr C Lewandowski, Mr N Moon, Mrs J Rees.

The following substituted were noted:

Mr Harrisson for Mr Lewandowski

Ms N Emmett for the academies group

None.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 6 July 2018.

It was noted that in relation to item 8 of the minutes of the meeting held 6 July 2018, the cabinet member finance and corporate services had provided additional information in relation to the future operation and funding of children’s centres which would be circulated to members of the forum following the meeting.

There were no other matters arising from the minutes.

Resolved: that the minutes of the meeting held on 6 July 2018 be approved as a correct record and signed by the chairman.

To update the forum on local and national school funding issues, including the recommendations of the budget working group (BWG) on the following matters:

1. Herefordshire schools budget 2019/20

2. f40 briefing on school funding

3. High needs budget 2019/20

4. DSG outturn 2017/18

5. Apprentice levy - update on the optimal use of the levy to support community and voluntary controlled schools in Herefordshire

The Schools Finance Manager (SFM) began with a presentation on national school funding issues.

Key points noted included:

·         the f40 group of low funded local authorities continued to campaign for a fairer funding system;

·         a presentation had been given to MPs in Westminster to promote the group’s briefing paper which identified a number of areas of concern and proposals of how these could be resolved;

·         the f40 group promoted an activity led funding model, which should be index linked and move away from reference to historical spending patterns, for example the lump sum allocated to schools was based on an average of historic values across all local authorities rather than an assessment of the costs that funding was intended to meet;

·         the national funding formula should not be artificially supported by a minimum guarantee which locks in many historic differences;

·         the f40 briefing note reflected many of the issues that had recently been discussed by the schools forum;

·         Herefordshire currently ranked around 93^rd out of 150 local authorities in terms of funding, this improvement on the past position reflected both additional money from central government and prudent decisions taken by the forum;

·         the f40 estimated the current funding shortfall to be £2bn per annum, rising to £3.8bn in 2019/20;

·         funding per pupil had remained steady over recent years but an increase in pupil numbers had increased expenditure and there were hidden costs such as those relating to national insurance and pension costs for teaching and non-teaching staff;

·         it was estimated that the total increase in costs was about 15% over 5 years, while the amount of funding per pupil had barely increased over the same period;

·         the comprehensive spending review in 2019 would determine the next 3 – 5 years of funding, until that process was completed the DfE would not be able to commit on future schools budgets;

·         the government was aware of the emerging cost pressures in the high needs budget, where demand was outstripping the budget available;

·         the national funding formula for high needs was fixed with a 50% factor on historic funding levels, some local authorities had requested significant transfers from their schools budget block to their high needs block to meet pressures;

·         there was feedback on early years that with the introduction of 30 hours central provision for some families, providers were more reliant on central funding and this was causing some providers to struggle;

·         restraint on council funds was impacting on the availability of school transport;

·         the SFM reported that the f40 group remained a good way for Herefordshire to put its views across and that the chair and vice-chair of the group had regular access to ministers.

The members of the forum thanked the SFM for his work with the f40 group.

In discussion of the presentation and f40 briefing note it was noted that:

·         some low funded schools in Herefordshire had benefitted from the minimum funding level but the mechanism was applied bluntly across all pupils with no consideration of additional  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

To approve a change to the local scheme for managing schools to ensure compliance with a national direction.

Deferred item from inquorate meeting of 6 July 2018

The SFM explained the directed change made by the secretary of state to the local scheme for managing schools. The purpose of the change was to ensure that loans agreed by the council with schools in future were for capital purposes only. Budget deficits would not be able to be converted into loans. Any loans in place when a school converted to academy status would not necessarily transfer to the academy.

As this was a directed change there was no alternative option and the LMS needed to be updated to reflect the new regulations and guidance.

It was resolved that the Herefordshire scheme for financing schools be amended as follows:

(a) Add a new para 4.10 (f) as follows:

“Loans will only be used to assist schools in spreading the cost over more than one year of large one-off individual items of a capital nature that have a benefit to the school lasting more than one financial or academic year. Loans will not be used as a means of funding a deficit that has arisen because a school’s recurrent costs exceed its current income. If loans are made to fund a deficit and a school subsequently converts to academy status, the Secretary of State will consider using the power under paragraph 13(4)(d) of Schedule 1 to the Academies Act 2010 to make a direction to the effect that such a loan does not transfer, either in full or part, to the new Academy school.”

(b) Replace the existing paragraph 4.8 as follows

“Where in the funding period, a school has been established or is subject to a prescribed alteration as a result of the closure of a school, a local authority may add an amount to the budget share of the new or enlarged school to reflect all or part of the unspent budget share (including any surplus carried over from previous funding periods) of the closing school for the funding period in which it closes”

(c) Add an additional paragraph to Annex F as follows

“A local authority can retain a central budget within the schools budget to fund the costs of new early retirements or redundancies by a deduction from maintained school budgets (excluding nursery schools) only, where the relevant maintained school members of the school forum agree to a de-delegated budget in accordance with Schedule 2 Part 7, of the Finance Regulations.”

To review membership of the budget working group to ensure proportionality or else to agree to the group not being proportionate.

Deferred item from inquorate meeting of 6 July 2018.

The clerk to the forum explained the outcome of the annual review of forum membership. No changes were required to the membership of the forum to maintain proportionality. However it was necessary to consider the membership of the budget working group (BWG).

There were no regulations governing the composition of a working group of the schools forum, as such it was a matter for the forum itself to determine the numbers and allocations of seats. The BWG was established to have a broadly proportionate share of seats between maintained primary schools, maintained secondary schools and academies. The present allocation of seats had been determined in 2012 and the proportion of pupils in each type of school had been slowly shifting since then.

It was noted that the forum could choose to retain the current allocation of seats. However to remain proportional the allocation of seats would need to be adjusted by reducing the number of seats for maintained secondary schools and increasing the number of seats allocated to academies.

Members of the forum indicated that it was sensible that the working group remained proportional.

It was resolved that:

a)    the allocation of seats on the budget working group be adjusted in line with the outcome of the proportionality review by reducing the number of seats allocated to local authority maintained secondary schools to one and increasing the number of seats allocated to academies to five.

To review the work programme for 2018-19 and identify any additional items the forum wishes to consider.

To consider dates for future forum meetings.

The work programme for 2018-19 was considered. It was noted that there were no items of business for the meeting of 7 December. It was proposed that this date be offered to MPs for their visit and that if they could not make that date, the meeting be cancelled.

Resolved that:

a)    the county MPs be invited to attend a meeting of the forum on 7 December;

b)    if the county MPs be unable to attend on 7 December that meeting be cancelled and an invitation extended for any of the future meetings of the forum.