Agenda

Items to be considered whilst the meeting is open to the public

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

To approve as a correct record and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 12 December 2024 (copy attached).

To receive any announcements from the Chair.

To note any declarations of interests.

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, and each question or statement should last no longer than 3 minutes.   Please register with the Officer named on this agenda, and 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 the agenda no later than 5pm on Tuesday 21 January 2025.  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 16 January 2025 to allow a response to be formulated.  Questions are limited to a maximum of 2 per person/organisation. A response will be given as either a direct oral answer or a written reply. Questions must not require the disclosure of confidential information.  The Chair’s ruling on rejection of a question is final.

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

·      Early Years Reference Group – 9 January 2025 (to follow)

·       Joint meeting of the School Funding Working Group and SEN Working Group – 14 January 2025 (to follow).

The report of Liz Williams (Finance Lead – High Needs Sustainability) and Ben Stevens (Inclusion, SEND and AP Transformation Lead) seeks to update Schools Forum on the draft revised SEND Sustainability Plan which was submitted to the Department for Education in December 2024.

The report of Ben Stevens (Inclusion, SEND and AP Transformation Lead) seeks to update Schools Forum on the progress made in developing the new Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) top-up funding scheme, including the responses received during the consultation process.  The report is to follow.

To consider the budget for 2025-26.

The following update reports provide details on the overall funding settlement on each of the funding blocks, the decisions will be made after consideration of all the update papers via the decision matrix.

The report of Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) seeks to update Schools Forum on the revenue funding settlement and the budget setting process for 2025-26.

The report of Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) seeks to update Schools Forum on issues relating to the schools delegated budget for 2025-26 and the decisions that need to be made as part of the budget setting process.

The report of Liz Williams (Finance Lead - High Needs Block Sustainability) seeks to update Schools Forum on issues related to the high needs block for 2025-26 and the decisions that will need to be made as part of the budget setting process.

The report of Marie Taylor (Head of Finance – Children and Education) seeks to update Schools Forum on issues relating to the Central Schools Services Block (CSSB) budget for the 205-26 financial year and the decisions that will need to be made as part of the budget setting process.

The report of Marie Taylor (Head of Finance – Children and Education) seeks to update Schools Forum on issues relating to the early years block for 2025-26 and the decisions that will need to be made as part of the budget setting process for 2025-26.

Schools Forum will be asked to consider the Schools Budgets for 2025-26 and make relevant decisions using the decisions matrix.

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

13 March 2025

12 June 2025

9 October 2025

11 December 2025.

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

Item(s) during consideration of which it is recommended that the public should be excluded because of the likelihood that exempt information would be disclosed