-      To consider the SACRE working group financial proposal and agree its presentation to the Schools Forum. – to follow as a separate supplement

-      To discuss the Chair’s vision for SACRE.

The Chair introduced the Strategic Finance Manager who outlined the process to present the SACRE working group financial proposal to the Schools Forum.

The Strategic Finance Manager’s presentation included the following points:

·        Funding for SACRE was provided for in the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) which had a block of funding used for central services.

·        The current proposal for SACRE funding was c£6k which provided for meetings and a quadrennial review of the syllabus.

·        Any additional funding would have to be considered by Schools Forum at their meeting on 14 January 2022 as it was the Forum that had the statutory responsibility for making the decision on how the central services block of the DSG was spent.

·        There were already proposals submitted which fully spent the central services budget so any increases would require Schools Forum to consider reducing someone else’s budget.

·        A detailed proposal showing some indicative funding values for all elements of the 4 proposals that the Chair had outlined in her paper would need to be completed and submitted ideally by the end of term so that the budget working group that advised the Forum had chance to examine the proposal.

·        Schools Forum had taken the view that wherever possible money would be put into schools to allow them to choose which services to spend it on. Very little central funding was retained as schools were encouraged to buy back the services they wanted.

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At 2.16pm the Strategic Finance Manager left the meeting.

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During continued discussion the following principal points were noted:

·        Additional funding was needed to cover an increase in costs of RE today, the costs for the next syllabus and the re-instatement of 3 meetings a year for the sake of continuity as there was too long a gap between the two meetings held currently.

·        In addition, the proposal should determine extra funding that was needed to have an effective SACRE. This should include the fees to re-join NASACRE, so that SACRE members could take part in their training programmes and the cost of establishing annual school events, as outlined in the Chair’s paper, to increase involvement with pupils and teachers.

·        The Council had an internal training budget that had not been fully utilised due to Covid, and which SACRE could possibly benefit from.

·        The Chair asked for volunteers to form a steering committee to organise these school events and for this to be done before finding out whether the bid for funding had been successful so that the Committee was ready to start work. The event at Madley Church could potentially go ahead without funding if parental support was forthcoming.

·        The Chair clarified that she was proposing that a secondary school event be held in Autumn 2022 and the primary school event in Summer 2023.

·        SACRE could also apply to the Westhill NASACRE grant for funding but the terms of the grants stipulated that any bids had to demonstrate that funds would be used to help more than a County area or just a handful of schools. The deadline for any grant applications was 31 March 2022.

RESOLVED:

Members of SACRE agreed that:

1.     The Chair’s outline proposals be approved.

2.     That a proposal be put to Herefordshire Council asking that any unspent funds from their  training fund be used for members to undertake NASACRE training.

3.     That the SACRE working group financial proposal be presented to the Schools Forum at their meeting in January.

4.     Additional funding be sought from the Westhill NASACRE grant

5.     That any members willing to volunteer to work on the following contact the Chair:

-      the detailed financial proposal needed to present to Schools Forum

-      an application to the Westhill NASACRE grant

-      a steering group for the school events outlined in the proposal

6.     That a member of the National Association of SACREs (NASACRE) be invited to the next meeting.