Agenda

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

To elect a Chair of Schools Forum for 2024-25.

To elect a Vice Chair of Schools Forum for 2024-25.

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 27 June 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 15 October 2024.  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 10 October 2024 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:

·       Joint meeting of the School Funding Working Group and SEN Working Group – 23 September 2024

·      Early Years Reference Group – 27 September 2024

The report of Lisa Pullin (Democratic Services Officer/Clerk to Schools Forum) seeks to inform that a review of proportionality, Schools Forum membership and its terms of reference have been carried out and that no changes are proposed.

The report of Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) presents the position of the revenue balances for Wiltshire maintained schools as at 31 March 2024 and identifies those in surplus and deficit.

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 2024-25 as at Quarter 1 2024/25 (June 2024).

The report of Grant Davis (Schools Strategic Financial Support Manager) seeks to brief Schools Forum on the recently announced Core Schools Budget Grant (CSBG).

Simon Thomas (FACT Programme Lead) will present an update on the FACT Partnership Transformation Programme at the meeting.

The report of Liz Williams (Finance Lead – High Needs Sustainability) seeks  to update Schools Forum on the SEND Transformation Programme.

The report of Liz Williams (Finance Lead – High Needs Sustainability Programme) seeks to update Schools Forum on progress on the review of EHCP top-up funding and seek views on the proposed direction of travel prior to a formal consultation with schools commencing in early November.  The report is to follow.

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

12 December 2024

23 January 2025

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