To receive any announcements from the Chair.
Minutes:
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 a working group had been set up with the sole aim of identifying contributing factors and to make proposals to reduce the cost pressure on the high needs block. Neil Baker and Lisa Percy were part of the working group.