Agenda and minutes

To elect a Chair of Schools Forum for 2018/19.

Resolved:

The Forum agreed to appoint Mr Neil Baker as Chair of Schools Forum for 2018/19.

To elect a Vice Chair of Schools Forum for 2018/19.

Resolved:

The Forum agreed to appoint Lisa Percy as Vice Chair of Schools Forum for 2018/19.

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

Apologies were received from the following Forum members: Mark Cawley (Early Years Rep), Michelle Chilcott (Secondary Academy Rep), Jon Hamp (Special School Academy Rep), Neil Spurdell (Secondary Academy Representative), David Whewell (Secondary School Governor Rep).

Apologies were received from the following Wiltshire Council Officers:  Nick Breakwell (Head of SEND Service), Helen Jones (Director – Commissioning), Tamsin Stone (Lead Commissioner), Judith Westcott (Acting Head of Commissioning and Joint Planning), and Cllr Phil Whalley (Portfolio Holder for Education & Skills).

The following changes to the membership of the Forum were noted:

Neil Spurdell (Head of Sheldon School, Chippenham is the new Chair of WASHH).  Neil replaces George Croxford (Head of Royal Wootton Bassett) on the Forum.

At the last meeting, we identified where there were gaps in the membership and we are pleased to announce that the following vacancies have been filled –

·        Primary academy representative – Lindsay West - Principal - Durrington Infants School

·        Secondary School Governor representative – David Whewell, Governor – John of Gaunt School

·        Primary School Governor representative – Mel Jacob – Chair of Governors at The Mead School

You also requested that we seek representatives from the other groups and the following have been nominated to attend our meetings with observer status

Wiltshire Parent Carer Council – Trudy Srawley

Wiltshire Children and Families Voluntary Sector Forum – no rep identified as yet

Local Youth Network – no representative identified as yet.

To approve as a correct record and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 28 June 2018 (copy attached).

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 28 June 2018 were approved as a correct record.

Resolved:

That the Chairman sign the minutes of the meeting held on 28 June 2018.

To receive any announcements from the Chair.

The Chairman welcomed all to the Forum and asked all others present to introduce themselves.

The Chairman invited Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) to provide the following verbal updates:

Teachers Pay Award

The Teachers pay award had finally been agreed and circulated to schools through Right Choice, with provided schools with additional funding to meet the increased costs associated with the agreed Teachers pay award.  Schools were able to set their own rates and schools that “buy in” to our services have been sent details of the options available to them.  Schools should have expected (and therefore budgeted for) at least a 1% increase in pay costs and the DfE are looking to fund anything above that level.  Funding from the DfE would be awarded to schools on a per pupil basis, but there was no clarity as yet on when the funding would be received by the local authority to pass onto schools.

Teachers’ Pension

The Teacher’s pension scheme is revalued every 3 years and employer contribution rates were due to change from September 2018.  It was delayed until 1 April 2019 and has now been pushed back to 1 September 2019.  The DfE have given indicative figures for employer contributions rising from 16.48% to 23.6% (a 7.12% increase) which was previously anticipated at 2%.  This significant increase would cause huge budgeting issues for schools.  The DfE are to put cushioning in place for 2019/20 so schools are not so badly affected.  Nothing has been confirmed past 2019/20 as that goes into a new Government spending review period.

Interim arrangements regarding Directors and Heads of Service of Finance Education & Skills Teams

The interim S151 Officer (Director of Finance), Ian Duncan is leaving Wiltshire for a post in Northampton.  Becky Hellard will be covering the role on an interim basis until a permanent replacement is appointed, hopefully by February 2019.  Marie Taylor will remain in post as Interim Head of Finance for Children’s Services until 31 January 2019.

A permanent Director of Education & Skills has been appointed (Helean Hughes) who will commence in the role on 5 November 2018 to replace Alan Stubbersfield who has been covering the role in the interim.  Alan will continue to work on the Special Schools project for the next six months.

The Chair, Neil Baker wished to thank Alan Stubbersfield for all his work and support he has provided to Wiltshire Schools.

Letter from National Association of Headteachers – Support for de-delegation funding for supply cover costs/trade union time

Grant referred to a letter that had been received from the NAHT urging Councils to support the de-delegation funding for supply cover costs and to continue to support a mechanism whereby academies are able to buy into a central fund for trade union time.  A copy of the letter is attached as Appendix 1 to these minutes and Grant asked schools to be aware of the request.

High Needs Block Recovery Group

Marie Taylor (Interim Head of Finance – Children’s Services) reported that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

To note any declarations of interests.

There were no declarations of interest.

Attached is an update on the progress of the Families and Children’s Transformation (FACT) Programme which has been prepared by Tamsin Stone (Lead Commissioner).

Jo Hobbs (Business Analyst – Programme Officer) referred to the FACT programme update that was circulated with the Agenda and reiterated that they were keen to ensure that Schools engaged with the programme.  The email address which is open to all is FACT@wiltshire.gov.uk and the programme was developing a website which would contain all of the latest news - http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/children-young-people-fact

She confirmed that following the suggestions made at the last meeting the FACT Teams had attended meetings of Primary Heads Forum and Wiltshire Association of Secondary School Heads and were yet to go to a meeting of the Wiltshire Governors Association.

Resolved:

That the FACT update be noted.

To receive minutes, reports and/or verbal updates from the following working groups:

·       Joint meeting of the School Funding Working Group and SEN Working Group held on 26 September 2018.

The meeting noted the update received by way of the minutes of the School Funding Working Group and SEN Working Group that were circulated with the Agenda.

Resolved:

That Schools Forum note the minutes of the joint meeting of the School Funding Working Group and SEN Working Group held on 26 September 2018.

The report of Jane Ralph (School Strategic Financial Management Adviser) presents the position of revenue balances for Wiltshire maintained schools as at 31 March 2018 and identifies those that are in 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 2018 and identified those that were in deficit.  Grant also explained the appendices in some detail, particularly about the schools with large and/or long-term deficits and those also with significant uncommitted/ringfenced surpluses without explanations such as rising or falling rolls.

Of particular discussion because of its deficit position was Abbeyfield School which had risen from a deficit of £687k in 2014/15 to £2.216m in 2017/18.

The Forum discussed what was put in place to support schools with deficit balances.  Offers of financial recovery planning assistance is made to schools identified as requiring support from the Accounting & Budget Support Team and despite this being part of the LA’s strategic role and not chargeable, the take up was low.

Deficit budgets and recovery plans are approved and are supported by a local authority licenced deficit over an agreed payback period.  If a school was to be placed into special measures from Ofsted then additional funding from the DfE would be applied for in the form of a SIF (School Improvement Fund) bid to support that school and to turn things around. 

Grant reported that previously Schools Forum had considered how best to enable the Local Authority to fulfil its key role in supporting and challenging schools with excessive surplus balances and had agreed that schools would be presented with an annual School Financial Management Information Statement (SFMIS) at year end (example circulated at the meeting) which it had been doing since 2016/17.  The SFMIS was a backward-looking document and was not necessarily indicative of future financial plans within the school.

Grant was proposing that in future a School Strategic Financial Management Statement (SSFMS) and a RAG rated Finance Audit matrix (examples circulated at meeting) be given to schools.  These documents were drawn up because it had become clear that not all schools were having a conversation with their Governors about their surplus balances. 

The question for some schools was “You have a surplus budget but poor performance with regard to your results – what are you going to do about it?”  The documents also presented a forward-looking position for schools which would be beneficial in future financial planning.

The colour coded self-evaluation matrix sheet should guide discussion to ascertain if there was no realistic plan, a spending plan and/or a strategic plan within the school and aid discussions around management of surplus or deficit balances.  The matrix sheet could support discussions between the schools and their CASP (Challenge & Support Partner) and could be provided to the CASP in advance of their meetings at the school.

A forum member asked if the documents would be shared with the CASP and Grant recommended that they should have sight of this information as part of their visits and be involved in their completion.

The differences between the two documents was discussed, with the Chairman also discussing how the SSFMS  ...  view the full minutes text for item 46.

The report of Marie Taylor (Interim Head of Finance) seeks to present budget monitoring information against the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) for the financial year 2018-19 as at 31 August 2018.

Marie Taylor (Interim Head of Finance for Children’s Services) referred to the Dedicated Schools Budget Monitoring 2018/19 report that was circulated with the Agenda.  Marie highlighted the following:

·       That an overspend of £0.925 million was currently projected against the overall schools’ budget.  Although this was the first report of the new financial year, the likelihood of an overspend was raised at the January 2018 meeting when the pressure on the high needs block was estimated at £0.843 million;

·       The annual prior year adjustment has been made by the DfE on the early years block allocation - for 2017/18 this was minimal at £35k and represents the updated census data feeding into the allocated formula.  The early years block has previously significantly underspent but this pattern is not forecast to continue in 2018/19 – Marie noted an explanation for this is that the 30 hours per week offer may be more useful to working parents and therefore have a higher take up;

·       Of most concern was the projected overspend on the high needs budget which related to independent special school packages, named pupil allowances and top ups in non-Wiltshire provision, but these were our most complex children and the authority would continue to do what was best for them;

·       In view of this ongoing pressure as previously mentioned a High Needs Working Group had been established with school and local authority officers to identify contributing factors and to make proposals to reduce the cost pressure on the high needs block.  Two meetings had been held so far.

A Forum member expressed disappointment that there had always appeared to be discussions about the overspend on the high needs block for a number of years now and we still appeared to be in the same position.

Marie Taylor reported that Wiltshire was not alone in this predicament, almost all other Local Authorities were reporting this position.

Alan Stubbersfield reported that the Local Government Association were so concerned with this recognised problem that they had commissioned research into it which Wiltshire is taking part in.

Resolved:

That the Forum note the budget monitoring position as at the end of August 2018 and the continued pressure on the high needs budgets and to support and contribute to the work of the High Needs Working Group.

The report of Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) seeks to provide members of Schools Forum with an overview of the key headlines from ‘Schools Revenue Funding 2019 2020 – Operational Guide (July 2018).

Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) referred to the reported circulated with the Agenda which sought to provide the Forum with an overview of the key headlines from the “Schools Revenue Funding 2019 to 2020 – Operational Guide (July 2018)”.  Grant highlighted the following:

·       On 24 July 2018, it was confirmed that the “soft” formula for the national funding formula (NFF) would continue for another year and that Local Authorities with their Schools Forum would continue to determine their funding formulae in 20220/21;

·       That looking at the indicative figures from the DfE at paragraph 10 of the report (actual figures would not be released until December) it was felt that Wiltshire Schools are still being poorly funded;

·       There was to be a level of local flexibility which would enable up to 0.5% of the total schools’ block to be transferred to other areas, but any movements would require approval from Schools Forum.  A 0.5% transfer of the schools’ block would equate to £1.362m (based on the provisional allocation of £272.436m and any transfer would require consultation with all LA maintained schools and academies prior to being presented to Schools Forum;

·       The DfE had committed to supporting schools with an additional £1.3billion over the next 2 years which included a cash increase for every pupil of 0.5% and increases in minimum funding per pupil in primary and secondary schools as part of the NFF; and

·       Schools Forum had not previously supported the sparsity factor and it was only introduced for 2018/19 as it formed part of the NFF.  At present a total of 25 primary and 2 secondary schools received funding paid through the Sparsity factor.

The Forum noted that they would be asked to propose a funding methodology for 2019/20 considering the published undated NFF and that they would need to consider the option of moving funding between the blocks.

Resolved:

That Schools Forum note the contents of the report.

The report of Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) seeks to provide members of Schools Forum with an overview of the key headlines from the recently published “National Funding Forumulae for Schools and High Needs 2019 to 2020 (July 2018).

Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) referred to the report that was circulated with the Agenda which provided the Forum with an overview of the key headlines from the recently published guidance on High Needs National Funding 2019/20.

Grant reported that there were no significant changes to the formula proposed, with an indicative increase of £730k which was yet to be confirmed and should be treated with caution. 

The final allocation was due to be announced in December and this would then need to be considered by the Forum at their December or January meeting (depending when the announcement was made).

Resolved:

That Schools Forum note the report.

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

6 December 2018

17 January 2019

28 March 2019

13 June 2019.

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

6 December 2018

17 January 2019

28 March 2019

13 June 2019.

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