To receive any announcements from the Chairman and any matters of communication.

The Chairman congratulated Ms D Hill on her promotion to Head of Service - Financial Support and welcomed Mr P Ball, Senior Finance Manager, to the meeting.

To note the Schools Forum powers and responsibilities summary document issued by the Education Funding Agency (copy attached).

The Forum received a report setting out the Schools Forum powers and

responsibilities which had been re-issued by the Education Funding Agency in December 2016.

NOTED

the Schools Forum powers and responsibilities report.

To review the feedback from the consultation with schools on the proposed funding arrangements for 2018/19 and agree to the movement of 0.5% of the Schools Block into the High Needs Block

Members of the Forum received a presentation on the responses to the Proposed School Funding for 2018/19 Consultation.

During the update the following key points were noted:

29 responses (22% of schools) had been received to the on-line consultation relating to 2018/19 Schools Block funding which took place between the 10 November and 8 December 2017, of which 8 had stated that they did not agree with any of the substantive changes (lump sum, deprivation or High Needs transfer).

Of the 4 models shared with schools to help them in considering their responses to the consultation, Model 2 was the local authority’s recommended option:

·         Lump sum was reduced to £110k

·         Deprivation Funding was in line with NFF

·         Removed the LAC factor

·         Transferred 0.5%to the High Needs Block

·         MFG 0%

The initial model presented to the Forum in November, was based on the same changes as above but with a -1.5% MFG which would have left some schools (mainly lowers) receiving a lower amount than in 2017/18 based on the October 2016 census and characteristics.

The Director of Children Services confirmed that the proposed transfer of 0.5% which equated to approximately £817k (based on the indicative school block allocation) would be ring-fenced to represent a one year investment to provide dedicated hands on support to all mainstream schools (Maintained and Academy alike) in earlier identification and intervention for children with additional needs. In terms of filling additional posts, one possibility could be to recruit as a secondment or fixed term post.

In January and February a full budget breakdown of this spend would be developed with a focused task and finish group of schools. The proposals would be reported to the clusters and to Schools Forum in March 2018.

The Director confirmed the ring-fenced funding would be for new initiatives and would not be used for any deficit. Any unspent funding would be brought back to Schools Forum to decide on reallocation.

Guidance was still awaited from the DfE relating to the recoupment for places at the ACB that would impact the High Needs Block.

It would not be possible to transfer between blocks once the National Funding Formula had been introduced.

The Head of Virtual Schools advised members of the Forum that the consultation provided the opportunity to be creative and innovative in partnership with school, to link in with some of health strategies such as mental health in schools and the impact on exclusions and work with specialist provision on outreach rather than backfill.

The proposed Model 2 would see no school receive less funding than it did last year (assuming pupil number and characteristics remain the same).  MFG would be zero and would be paid for by capping.

The Director of Children’s Services confirmed that she had not approached the council regarding the possibility of LA funding the issues of the High Needs Block.

The deadline for submission of disapplication requests to the DfE was the 30 November 2017. The Secretary of State had been advised that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Monday 29 January 2018, 3pm, Room 15, Priory House, Shefford.

Monday 29 January 2018, 3pm, Room 15, Priory House, Shefford.