Agenda and minutes

To elect a Chair of Schools Forum for 2022-23.

Resolved:

The  Forum  agreed  to  appoint  Lisa  Percy  as  Chair  of  Schools  Forum  for 2022-23.

To elect a Vice Chair of Schools Forum for 2022-23.

Resolved:

The Forum agreed to appoint Graham Shore as Vice Chair of Schools Forum for 2022-23.

To note any apologies, substitutions and changes to the membership of the Forum.

Apologies were received from Aileen Bates (WGA – Special School Governor representative), Jon Hamp (Special School Academy representative), Cllr Ross Henning (Observer – Local Youth Network), Cllr Laura Mayes (Cabinet Member – Children, Education and Skills), Ros Sutton (WGA – Primary School Governor representative), Giles Pugh (Salisbury Diocesan Board of Education), and Lucy Townsend (Director of Children’s Services).

Substitutions 

Nick Norgrove is substituting for the vacancy created by the retirement of Nigel Roper.  Nikki Barnett is substituting for Jo Grenfell.

Membership changes

The Chair welcomed John Read from Lyneham Primary School who is replacing Sam Churchill as a maintained primary school representative.

The Chair welcomed Angela Brennan has joined Schools Forum as an observer representing the Wiltshire Children and Families Voluntary Sector Forum.

To approve as a correct record and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 9 June 2022 (copy attached).

The minutes of the meeting held on 9 June 2022 were presented.

Resolved:

That the Chair approve and sign the minutes of the meeting of Schools Forum held on 9 June 2022.

To receive any announcements from the Chair.

The Chair made the following announcements:

Change to Agenda order

Agreement had been given to move Agenda item 15 (High Needs Block update) up the Agenda to discuss after Agenda item 8.

Thank you and goodbye to John Proctor

Prior to the meeting John Proctor, early years representative had notified that he was standing down as the Chairman of the Early Years Reference Group and as the early years representative on Schools Forum.  As well as running successful early years settings in Wiltshire, John has been a steadfast and loyal representative of his early years colleagues over many years serving as chair of the EY reference group and Schools Forum member, offering rightful challenge and scrutiny to local authority officers in setting the rates for early years and ensuring their voice is heard and valued in the forum.  He will be sorely missed both on the EY reference group and on Schools Forum and we would like to thank him and wish him well in his next adventures.

Change to Agenda order

I have given agreement to move Agenda item 15 (High Needs Block update) up the Agenda to discuss after agenda item 8.

To note any declarations of interests.

There were no interests declared.

Schools Forum welcomes contributions from members of the public who are able to ask questions or make a statement in relation to the responsibilities and functions of the Forum at each meeting. A maximum of 15 minutes will be allocated to this at the start of each meeting. Please register with the Officer named on the Agenda in accordance with the deadlines below.

Statements

Members of the public who wish to submit a statement in relation to an item on this agenda should submit this electronically to the officer named on this agenda no later than 5pm on Tuesday 4 October 2022.  Statements must not be defamatory, frivolous, offensive, vexatious, unlawful or otherwise improper. They must not name or identify individual service users, members of staff or members of partner agencies.

Questions

Those wishing to ask questions are required to give notice of any such questions to the Officer named on the front of this agenda no later than 5pm on Thursday 29 September 2022 to allow a response to be formulated. Questions are limited to a maximum of 2 per person or organisation.

No questions or statements were received in advance of the meeting.

The Forum will be asked to note the minutes/updates from the following meetings:

·         Joint meeting of the School Funding Working Group and SEN Working Group held on 11 July and 23 September 2022

·         Early Years Reference Group – 3 October 2022 (to follow).

The Forum noted the update received by way of the minutes of the joint meetings of the School Funding and SEN Working Group held on 11 July and 23 September 2023.  There were no questions arising.

The Forum noted the update received by way of the minutes of the meeting of the Early Years Reference Group meeting held on 3 October 2022.

Cllr Suzanne Wickham asked for more information on the 72 children that were currently staying in early years settings when they ought to be in school – was it that the parents or settings or both deeming that these children were not ready – was it a SEND issue or a socialisation issue following Covid and had portage been considered?

Helean Hughes (Director – Education & Skills) responded that she would ask the Officer (Emma Cooke – Service Manager – Early Years) who had tabled that item to provide a written response to the questions raised and these could be shared with the minutes of the meeting.

Resolved:

That Schools Forum note the minutes of the joint meetings of the School Funding and SEN working group held on 11 July and 23 September 2022 and the meeting of the Early Years Reference Group held on 3 October 2022.

The report of Lisa Pullin (Democratic Services Officer/Clerk to Schools Forum) seeks approval of the membership of the Forum and to revisions of the Terms of Reference in light of the review of proportionality that was carried out in September 2022.

Lisa Pullin (Clerk to Schools Forum) referred to the report which sought approval of the membership of the Forum, and to revisions of the Terms of Reference in light of the review of proportionality that was carried out in September 2022, and highlighted the following:

• Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) carried out a review of the proportionality of the Forum in September 2022 and whilst there was a change to pupil numbers, this did not equate to a change needed in the representative proportionality of the Forum;

• The last change to the representative proportionality was made in October 2021 when the primary representation changed from 4 maintained and 2 academy reps to 3 maintained and 3 academy reps;

• The current membership of the Forum detailed on pages 26/27 of the Agenda showed the current vacancy for a maintained secondary representative following the retirement of Nigel Roper and it was expected that a new representative would be notified from WASSH as soon as possible;

• The Forum had also today been notified of John Proctor (early years representative) standing down and so there was also a vacancy for that position to be appointed by the Early Years Reference Group;

• Whilst there were changes to the Forum’s membership proportionality in October 2021, the Terms of Reference have not been updated since October 2019 so the opportunity was now being taken to update these to show the revised membership breakdown, the procedure for submitting a statement to the meeting and the details of how meeting minutes are disseminated; and

• ?If the changes were approved by the Forum the next step would then be for the Cabinet Member for Children, Education & Skills to approve this through the delegated decision process.?

Resolved that Schools Forum:

a)    Note that the proportionality of the Forum has been reviewed and that no changes are recommended.

b)    Agree the revised Terms of Reference and endorse the proposed
changes, requesting that that these then be presented to the Cabinet Member for Children, Education & Skills for approval through the delegated decision process.

c)    Notes the current Membership details of the Forum.

d)    Requests that the following representatives be appointed as soon as possible for the current vacancies:

i)       Maintained secondary school representative (appointed by WASSH)

ii)     Early Years representative (appointed by the Early Years Reference Group).

The report of Marie Taylor (Head of Finance – Children and Education) seeks to present budget monitoring information against the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) for the financial year 2022-23 as at 31 August 2022.

Marie Taylor (Head of Finance – Children and Education) referred to the report which presented the year end budget monitoring information against the DSG for the financial year 2022-23 as at 31 August 2022 and highlighted the following:

• The overspend forecast of £7.037M was already out of date as at the end of September – the main driver for this was the ongoing pressures on the high needs block, the reasons for which are known and understood and work was ongoing;

• There was a forecast underspend of £2,366M on the early years block and this was due to the demand and the budget being based on the previous year’s numbers of take up.  There were also low birth rates forecast in the county which may contribute.  This underspend is unavailable to be used by the LA as it would likely be all recalled by the DfE as part of the post financial year adjustment;

• Early years Officers have submitted a bid to the Director of Public Health for more COMF grant funding to support early years settings.  This was being discussed by the Corporate Leadership Team today and it was hoped that this would be successful – an update would be shared at the next meeting;

• The forecast underspend on the schools block largely related to the school supply cover fund which currently shows a forecast underspend and is helping to offset the overall pressure on the DSG;

·      The high needs block was due to overspend and the figure had risen from £9.414M in September 2022.  The biggest areas of overspend were Independent Special School packages, alternative provision, named pupil allowances and top ups.  When the level of funding available does not match the local needs, the budget cannot be set at an achievable level and so the location of the overspend is not an indication of individual budget issues but that the whole block under significant pressure;

·      Following the pandemic, when professionals could not assess children and young people in school, EHC assessments were delayed due to inevitable backlog.  Whilst Officers had put in place temporary support funding to support learners, they had not seen the same rate of growth in plans, and the assumptions around future plans would need constant adjustment to be as accurate as possible;

·      There was a small forecast overspend in the central schools services block driven by a higher than budgeted pay award and not achieving the 6.5% vacancy factor;

·      The DSG reserve brought forward of £25.973M is increased by the positive early years block adjustment of £0.564M.  The forecast overspend would take the reserve in to an overall deficit position of £32.446M; and

·      At their meeting on 3 October 2022, the Early Years Reference Group considered the limited one off usage of the early years contingency fund a project to support children for school readiness and support for vulnerable early years pupils with additional needs to reduce the pressure on the primary sector. This will be raised at the high needs recovery group.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

The report of Debbie Williams (Schools Strategic Financial Management Adviser) presents the position of revenue balances for Wiltshire maintained schools as at 31 March 2022 and identifies those in surplus and deficit.

Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) referred to the report which presented the position of revenue balances for Wiltshire maintained schools as at 31 March 2022 and identified those in surplus and deficit and highlighted the following:

• The last couple of years had been financially difficult for some schools and there had been certain funding that had been received but they were not able to spend – this had had a knock on impact for some school’s balances;

• The net surplus balances for the financial year 2021/22 were £13.3M with 110 schools holding surplus balances of £15.9M and 13 schools in deficit to a value of £2.57M;

• The number of LA maintained schools had decreased from 126 to 123 between 31 March 2021 and 31 March 2022 – the data did not include those schools which had covered during the financial year;

·       The DfE may ask local authorities to provide additional information where:

a)    the authority has 5% of schools that have had a surplus of 15% or more for the last 5 years and where the individual surplus is least £10,000 each year. Authorities will only be asked for more information if at least 3 schools meet the criteria.

b)    the authority has 2.5% of its schools in deficit by 2.5% or more for the last 4 years and where the individual annual deficit is at least £10,000.

• The number of schools in deficit had remained the same at 13 for 2021-22 and the value of the deficits had decreased by £0.15M from £2.72M in 2020-21 to £2.57M in 2021-22;

• The number of schools in surplus had decreased from 113 in 2020/21 to 110 in 2021/22.  This was due to 3 schools with surplus balances converting to academy status. The value of surpluses increased by £1.53M, from £14.39M in 2020/21 to £15.92M in 2021/22;

• For those schools with surplus balances for more than 5 years they were being encouraged to explain why – most schools had a reason for the surplus i.e. they were saving up for a capital project and that the surplus balance would be planned to drop down once spent; and

• The appendices to the report highlight that the Authority may trigger an investigation from the DfE due to the number of schools holding excess  revenue and deficit balances – many schools were still holding large surplus balances following the pandemic and the additional funding granted to support schools.

Resolved:

That Schools Forum note the report on Schools revenue surplus and deficit balances for 2021-22.

Simon Thomas (FACT Programme Lead) will present an update on the Families and Children’s Transformation Programme (FACT) to the Forum – particularly

Wiltshire’s multi-agency Family Help arrangements.

Simon Thomas (FACT Programme Lead) gave an update to the Forum on the FACT programme - in particular the Wiltshire multi-agency Family Help arrangements and highlighted the following:

• That the current picture showed that the key areas of demand related to: SEND, ASD pathway, children and young people’s behaviour (at home and school), emotional well-being, gaps and social mobility;

• Whilst partners agreed that there was much in the way of good practice, there were also practice/system issues identified: Insufficient lead professionals, inconsistent holistic whole family practice, an unclear early help offer, limited flexibility in how/when/where to access support, a degree of a lack of family confidence in some services and a lack of coherence between ‘youth offer’ and early help;

• The feedback from families was shared and the programme had identified that there was an opportunity to work together and improve the way the system works.  The Family Help initiative would seek to ensure Wiltshire’s multi-agency Family Help arrangements enable children, young people and families to access the right help at the right time through a co-ordinated approach to prevention and early intervention through:

·       a co-ordinated approach at a whole population/universal level to prevent needs from arising and to build resilience across all residents

·       a robust multi-agency approach to spotting any additional needs at the earliest point and providing effective joined-up support that prevents the needs from escalating further

• They had committed to a programme of work so that there was a clear unifying brand for Family Help with a single online database of all services, community resources and activities.  There would be a co-ordinated whole system workforce development offer to ensure that there was a consistency of core approaches across the Early Help workforce;

• It was planned to pilot these approaches to start in Warminster and Westbury who will also develop and test the benefits of:

-       Wrapping a dedicated group of identified Early Help services and  community groups around a cluster of schools/settings; embedding them in the communities they serve;

-       Establishing a local contact point for Early Help requests for support and case discussion whereby the responses make best use of local resources including the voluntary and community sector;

-       More flexible working practice with core workers delivering intervention in the place, way and time that achieves best impact e.g. home, school, online, group, breakfast time, evening;

-       A locally led inclusive and welcoming local community of practice for Early Help – responding to local needs, identifying and sharing learning and good practice, engaging in reflective dialogue related to the pilot activity, promoting and delivering agreed culture and practice change activity;

-       Securing strong transition with a focus on pupils that need it most and joining up where siblings span multiple schools;

-       Specialist input on key themes including mental health, ASD, parental conflict and challenging behaviour – delivered locally and taking account of the local context;

-       Local consultation mechanisms to ensure that we understand the needs and lived experience of children and families in Warminster  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

The report of Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) seeks to confirm Schools Forum members response to the DfE’s second stage consultation regarding implementing the National Funding Formula (NFF) for schools.

Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) referred to the report which confirmed the response on behalf of Schools Forum members to the DfE’s second stage consultation regarding the National Funding Formula for Schools and highlighted the following:

• The DfE released the ‘Implementing the Direct National Funding Formula’ consultation on 7 June 2022 with a response date by 9 September 2022;

• A special meeting of the Schools Funding and SEN Working Group was convened on 11 July 2022 to prepare a response on behalf of Schools Forum members;

• The consultation focussed on the following areas of school funding:

a.    Transfer of funding between ‘blocks’?

b.    Indicative SEND budgets?

c.     Growth and Falling Rolls funding?

d.    Premises funding – Split Sites?

e.    Premises funding – Exceptional Circumstances (rent of facilities)?

f.      Use of the Minimum Funding Guarantee?

g.    The annual funding cycle?

h.    De-delegation?

• The response on behalf of the Forum was submitted by the deadline and now the outcome following the consultation is now awaited to see the implications for the 2023-24 financial year and what changes the DfE may make based on the feedback received.

Resolved:

That Schools Forum note the contents of the report on the DfE’s second stage consultation regarding the National Funding Formula for Schools.

The report of Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) seeks to bring to the attention to Schools Forum the latest DfE funding changes for schools and high needs in 2023-24.

Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) referred to the report which outlined the DfE funding proposals for schools and high needs in 2023-24 and highlighted the following:

• The indicative allocations for the 2023-24 budget had been given by the DfE and they had continued to allocate funding on the basis of the National Funding Formula (NFF).  The 2023-24 year would be another “soft” year with Schools Forum still retaining its role in determining the school funding allocation methodology;

·         The 2023-24 year will be the first transition year towards the direct schools National Funding Formula (NFF). A tightening of the of the formula was confirmed following the first stage of the government’s consultation on the direct NFF. This tightening will ensure that for the 2023-24 year that:

-   Only NFF factors can be used in the local formula

·     All NFF factors must be used in the formula

·     LA’s are required to move their formula 10% closer to the NFF values

• Wiltshire’s local school formula already mirrors the NFF – therefore the tightening will have a minimal impact upon Wiltshire schools;

• The indicative allocations are based on the October 2021 census which also formed the basis of the 2022-23 allocations;

• The main formula for the 2023-24 year is broadly similar to the formula for 2022-23 year, the main changes are below:

a)    Overall, funding through the NFF will increase by 1.9%

b)    Core pupil-led funding factors and the lump sum to increase by 2.4%

c)    Disadvantaged funding, FSM6 and IDACI factors to increase by 4.3%

d)    The ‘Minimum per pupil funding level’ to increase by 3.3% to £4,405 for Primary and £5,715 for Secondary

e)    The School Supplementary Grant from 2022-23 has been rolled into the baseline funding and then inflated by the relevant % increases.

f)      Increasing the DfE’s High Needs funding by £570m or 6.3%

• The DfE are expecting to move to the Direct (Hard) NFF by the 2027-28 funding year at the latest.  All NFF factors will be mandatory from 2023-24 and the formula will be presented to Schools Forum when the final allocations have been confirmed in December 2022 and then to the Local Authority for political ratification and approval in February 2023;

• The growth funding is based on the growth in pupils in the MSOA between the October 2022 and October 2021 census and will attract funding at £1,520 per primary pupil and £2,275 per secondary pupil;

• Initial modelling of the allocations show that all formulas should be affordable.  The usual consultation about de-delegation of services was currently out and the findings would be brought back to the next meeting in December.

An Early Years representative asked about distributing the grant centrally not through LA – and if de-delegation would disappear or be delivered through a trading company. Grant Davis responded that we would find out in due course as part of the consultation sought responses regarding the future of de-delegation and whether this should continue.  If there were enough maintained schools interested in continuing with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

The minutes of the High Needs Block Working Group held on 7 July 2022 are attached.  The Forum will also receive an update on behalf of the Working Group.

Cate Mullen (Head of SEND and Inclusion) gave an update on behalf of the High Needs Block working group and referred to the minutes of the meeting held on 7 July 2022.  Cate highlighted the following:

• Three DfE documents were published in June/July 2022 relating to creating sustainability in high needs and these had been discussed by the working group;

• A total of ten recommendations where highlighted in the documents and the High Needs Block working group focused on the following three at their meeting on 11 July 2022:

Recommendation 6: Local authorities should review and further develop their approaches to partnership with key stakeholders, taking into account some of the positive practices described in this report (in addition to any broader policy emphasis on this area).

Recommendation 8: With regard to developments in local mainstream provision, investment should be targeted at strengthening inclusion, with impact monitored and evaluated at that level.

Recommendation 9: Local authorities should set out more clearly their expected pathways for young people with different levels of need, ensure that these are presented earlier and more clearly to young people and their parents, and evaluate quality and outcomes on a more regular basis. Pathways should be realistic but ambitious.

·               One of the two DfE programmes run was the Safety Valve Programme which was available to the local authorities with the highest high needs deficits.  There were two principal goals identified during the programme which were crucial for the LA’s ability to reach sustainable positions were:

-       appropriately managing demand for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), including assessment processes that are fit for purpose

-       use of appropriate and cost-effective provision - this includes ensuring mainstream schools are equipped and encouraged to meet needs where possible, whilst maintaining high standards for all pupils

·               It was identified that achieving those goals required: Early intervention focus, increased SEN support offer, a review of EHCP assessment processes and thresholds, culture change and work with school leaders and appropriate and through provision mapping, with potential development of more local provision;

·               Delivering Better Value was a new programme that aims to support LA’s to improve delivery of SEND services for children and young people while ensuring services are sustainable.  This programme will provide dedicated support and funding to 55 LA’s with less severe deficits than those in the Safety Valve programme of which Wiltshire is one of them.  Newton Europe, in collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), will work with the DfE to deliver the programme;

·               The DfE was engaging with Schools Forums as part of the development of the programme and it was expected that local Schools Forums would be consulted as part of the diagnostic phase;

·               There were three tranches to the programme and Wiltshire are part of tranche 2 which was starting to be set up now with the diagnostics running from February to July 2023.  The work of the programme would be completed by April 2024.  The first trance going through  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

To confirm the dates of future meetings as follows, all to start at 1.30pm:

8 December 2022

19 January 2023

16 March 2023 (if required).

The Forum noted that the future meetings would be held on:

8 December 2022 (planned to be face to face at County Hall, Trowbridge)

19 January 2023 (planned to be face to face at County Hall, Trowbridge)

16 March 2023 (if required).

To consider any other items of business, which the Chair agrees to consider as a matter of urgency.

Prior to the start of the meeting the Chair had agreed that a report entitled “Local Consultation – School Improvement Services 2023-24” could be shared with Schools Forum under agenda item 17 – Urgent Items.  The report which sought to update Schools Forum with the results of the recent consultation with maintained schools relating to the removal of the Local Authority Monitoring and Brokering Grant 2023-24 was shown on the screen and the meeting and then circulated post meeting via Agenda supplement 2 on 11 October 2022.

Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) referred to the report and highlighted the following:

·         The DfE released its consultation on ‘Reforming how local authorities’ school improvement functions are funded’ in late October 2021.  The two key questions of the DfE consultation were to:

a)    Remove the Local Authority Monitoring & Brokering Grant (LAMB), which is currently allocated to local authorities to support school improvement activities; and

b)   Make provisions within the School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations for the financial year (FY) 2022-23 to allow local authorities to fund all their school improvement activity (including all core school improvement activities) via de-delegation from schools’ budget shares.

·         The LAMB has been provided to local authorities since 2017, to help fulfil their core improvement activities, which was based upon the number of maintained schools.  The proposals from the DfE, to reduce the grant by 50% in 2022-23, with full removal in the 2023-24 year were approved, following the consultation.  As a result, Wiltshire’s funding fell from.

a.    £459,000 in the 2021-22 year

b.    £229,500 in the 2022-23 year

c.    £0 for the 2023-24 year 

·         Local authorities were provided with the opportunity to fund improvement services through either de-delegation of maintained schools’ budgets or on a traded basis.  To provide Schools Forum with a steer, a local consultation was arranged to provide a basket of options for potential funding of the loss of the LAMB grant.  In January 2022 maintained members of Schools Forum agreed to de-delegate monies from their budgets, to cover the drop in funding for the LAMB.  This de-delegation was agreed to ensure that School Effectiveness service provided to maintained schools would not be compromised;

·         To provide Schools Forum with information, a local consultation was arranged to provide several options with schools being asked to rank each of the options in order of priority.  This consultation was open to all maintained schools and a total of 11 responses were received – 1 secondary school and 10 primary schools.  The options for schools were as below:

• Eight of the schools so that no funding for the loss of the LAMB grant was their least preferred option, five schools expressing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.