Agenda Item:
THE CUMBRIAN SCHOOLS’ FORUM
Draft MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON
20 June 2014
County Hall, Kendal
PRESENT
Louise Anderton (Small Schools)
Anne Burns (CCC – Labour Group)
Linda Dean (Barrow Primary)
Jackie Drake (Nursery Schools)
Bev Forster (Primary Academy)
Jackie Franklin (Non-teaching Unions)
Bernard Gummett (Special Schools)
Steven Holmes (Secondary Academy)
Helen Johnson (PRU – representing Lisa Balderstone)
Jo Laker (Allerdale Primary)
Chris McAree (Secondary Academy – representing Alan Mottershead)
John McAuley (RC Diocese)
Michael Mill (CE Diocese)
Chris Nattrass (14-19 – representing Anne Attwood)
David Nattrass (Eden Primary)
Nigel Pattinson (Eden Secondary)
Ty Power (Secondary Academy)
Vanessa Ray (Secondary Academy)
Alan Rutter (Teachers’ Professional Associations)
Officers in Attendance:
Caroline Sutton (Assistant Director – Schools and Learning)
Helen Hamilton (Children’s Services Finance Manager)
Gillian Martin (HR Manager – item 8)
Nicola Shiels (Children’s Services)
Observers:
None
Apologies for Absence
Anne Attwood
Lisa Balderstone
David Batten
Chris Brooksbank
Nick Fish
Bev Forster
Vivienne Halliday
Alan Mottershead
Part 1: Items Likely to be Considered in the Presence of the Press and Public
1. Appointment of Chair
Alan Rutter was appointed as chair of the Schools Forum.
2. Appointment of Vice-Chair
David Nattrass was appointed as vice-chair of the Schools Forum.
3. Declarations of Interest
Chris Nattrass, Lakes College – item 11, Southfield Technology College and Stainburn School and Science College.
4. Exclusion of Press and Public
It was agreed that the press and public would not be excluded from the meeting during consideration of any of the items on the agenda.
However, during the course of the meeting it was agreed that the press and public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of item 11, Southfield Technology College and Stainburn School and Science College.
5. Minutes
The minutes of the meeting of the Schools Forum held on 8 April 2014 were agreed as an accurate record.
Matters Arising
There were no matters arising from the minutes
6. Working Group Minutes
i) School Budgets Working Group – The School Budgets Working Group had met on 20 May 2014. A copy of the draft notes of the meeting had been circulated. All of the items that had been discussed were included on the agenda for this meeting.
ii) SEN, Social Deprivation, Access and Inclusion Working Group – The SEN Working Group had also met on 20 May 2014. A copy of the draft notes had been circulated.
The SEN Working Group had made a number of recommendations that the Forum was asked to consider:
a) That the attendance of the SEN lead in the county at each meeting of the SEN group be formally requested.
b) That the backlog of statements as a result of waiting for medical evidence be addressed.
c) Numbers and cost of placements in residential settings be provided to the group.
d) An additional budget heading be included in future reports – Early Intervention Support Grant.
e) £1.207m does not revert back to DSG but is retained to address future pressures on SEN budgets.
The Schools Forum endorsed recommendations a- d. Recommendation e was deferred until after consideration of item 10 on the agenda, Dedicated Schools Grant – Earmarked Reserves 2013/14.
The draft minutes of the working group meetings were noted by the Schools Forum. However, in terms of accuracy, the draft notes would be approved at the next meetings of the working groups.
7. Voluntary Redundancy Policy
At the meeting held on 8 April 2014, the Schools Forum was asked to approve the revised Voluntary Redundancy policy and to note the Council’s decision not to fund ill-health retirements or compulsory redundancies in schools with immediate effect. The control of surplus balances policy would also need to be amended to take account of the amended voluntary redundancy policy. The current VR Policy had come into effect on 1 April 2011 but there were some inconsistencies with the CCC policy on Voluntary Redundancy. To ensure equitable treatment between all staff, the policy had been amended to ensure that it was consistent with the CCC policy.
In discussing the revised policy, a number of changes were suggested. Overall, the Schools Forum felt that a number of the suggested changes required a more detailed discussion and it was proposed that the Schools Budgets Working Group should consider the proposals in more detail at the next meeting on 20 May 2014. Taking account of the views of the working group, and comments that had been received from schools, the policy had been amended and was now presented to the Schools Forum for consideration and agreement.
The proposed changes to the policy were:
i) The policy now incorporated pupil referral units as these had delegated budgets and are treated like schools.
ii) The policy document was now presented in two parts with a summary policy document and a detailed procedure document.
iii) Both the current and updated policy only applied to employees with 2 or more years continuous service.
iv) A value for money assessment had been incorporated as a condition for eligibility. The voluntary redundancy request form had been updated to include a value for money assessment which the requesting school must complete. The value for money assessment, which will be reviewed and verified by the Local Authority, must demonstrate that the cost of termination is recoverable within three years of the employee’s termination date.
v) The redundancy payment had been revised to be consistent with the County Council redundancy payment rates.
vi) The policy now outlines at Section 4 – Staff Responsibility: that if the school issued an employee with notice of redundancy and before the dismissal takes effect, the employee accepts an offer of employment from another body specified in Part II of Schedule 2 of the Redundancy Payments (Continuity of Employment in Local Government etc.) (Modification) Order 1999, they would lose their entitlement to a redundancy payment if the new employment started within four weeks after the date of redundancy. In addition, staff taking voluntary redundancy would not be considered for re-employment with an establishment specified in Part II of Schedule 2 of the Redundancy Payments (Continuity of Employment in Local Government etc.) (Modification) Order 1999 within 12 months of the date of the termination of their employment. This extended to employment, whether on a permanent, temporary or fixed term contract.
vii) A checklist was included that will be used to inform schools of the reason(s) why a voluntary redundancy has not been approved.
viii) The deadline for submissions for staff wishing to leave at 31st August, had now been amended to 15th December (rather than 31st December) with the Panel taking place in February.
The Schools Forum agreed the amended Voluntary Redundancy Policy, to take effect immediately. The policy would be circulated to all school via the portal.
Membership of the Voluntary Redundancy Panel was also considered. It was agreed that Louise Anderton and David Nattrass should continue as panel members and that Vanessa Ray should replace Alan Mottershead on the panel following his retirement at the end of the summer term.
8. School Funding Reform 2015/16
In March 2014, the DfE launched a consultation with all maintained schools, academies, local authorities, governors, bursars, parents, schools forums and trade union organisations on changes to school funding from April 2015. The closing date for the consultation was 30 April 2014.
The proposals outlined in the consultation did not represent the implementation of a national funding formula, although the document stated that a national funding formula would be implemented ‘when the time was right’. Instead, the proposal was to make changes to the way that the Schools Block element of the DSG allocation was calculated for each local authority was proposed. DfE also proposed to allocate an additional £350m in 2015/16 to increase the funding for the least fairly funded local areas. This proposal related to the 2015/16 financial year only. Indicative figures showed that Cumbria would gain £6.7m through these proposals. This amount was based on pupils numbers as at October 2013, the actual additional funding for 2015/16 would be based on pupil number as at October 2014.
A working group of officers and members from the Schools Forum had been established in April and was made up of equal membership from both the primary and secondary sector. The group met on four occasions during May and June 2014 and explored a range of issues, in particular, looking at average funding per pupil in Cumbria, compared to national averages, and how average funding per pupil differed between schools in the county. The meetings had been very well attended and had resulted in extremely open discussions that had not been focused on one phase. The Chair took the opportunity to thank everyone involved for their contributions. It was also noted that it was important to the group that primary funding remained higher than the national average whilst taking steps to move secondary funding towards the national average.
As a result of the analysis undertaken during the course of the meetings, the working group had identified three principles that the Schools Forum were asked to recommend to Cabinet at its meeting in July to form the basis for a funding formula for 2015/16 on which all schools and Academies would be consulted in autumn 2014.
The principles recommended by the working group were as follows:
· The formula achieved the 2014-15 national average primary-secondary funding ratio of 1:1.27 (this meant that Cumbrian secondary school pupils will receive on average 27% more funding per head than primary pupils).
· The formula seeks to increase the proportion of DSG that was devolved to schools based on the number of pupils within each school and thereby reducing the range in average funding per pupil that currently exists within each phase (primary and secondary). It was recognised that there were some individual exceptional circumstances and constraints in the funding formula regulations which meant that some schools will receive a higher level of funding per pupil.
· The formula maintained the current levels of funding, and data used for the deprivation, prior attainment and English as an Additional Language factors.
In discussing the principles it was suggested that an additional one should be added:
· The formula seeks to maintain a higher than national average funding per pupil for primary pupils and moves the secondary average funding per pupil towards the national average funding per pupil.
However, following the request to add this to the original paper, further clarification had identified that this principle was not strictly correct in the light of the other agreed principles, and therefore the original three principles remained.
The Schools Forum recommended to the County Council Cabinet that the three principles as set out above be used as a basis for a funding formula for 2015/16 on which all schools and Academies would be consulted in the autumn 2015.
9. Dedicated Schools Grant – Earmarked Reserves 2013/14
The Schools Forum considered a report that informed of the movement on reserves from 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014. The Forum were asked to note the content of the report, the value of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) reserves as at 31 March 2014 and to approve the draw-down of £0.038m from the centrally retained DSG reserve to support the de-delegated library service budget in 2014/15.
Individual School Balances
Total deficit balances had reduced by £0.414m from £3.121m at 1 April 2013 to £2.707m at 31 March 2014. In terms of numbers of schools in deficit, these had reduced from 60 to 49. The fall in deficit balances, and the number of schools in deficit could be attributed, at least in part, to the continued impact of the Local Authority’s Challenge and Support Policy for Schools with Deficit Budgets, which was first introduced in March 2011.
Total surplus balances had reduced by £0.743m from £11.863m to £11.120m. The number of schools in surplus had increased from 234 in 2012-13 to 244 in 2013-14.
Two schools had converted to Academy status in 2013-14. Both schools had surplus balances at 31 March 2013, which totalled £0.139m. Therefore, removing these balances at 31 March 2013, meant a reduction in total surplus balances for maintained schools of £0.604m from £11.724m to £11.120m and an overall movement on the balances of maintained schools of -£0.190m from £8.603m to £8.413m.
The total surplus balances in excess of the allowable threshold were £1.573m. Of the 50 schools identified with excess surplus balances, 16 of these would receive an automatic claw back of their 2013-14 excess surplus balance. The potential claw back for these 16 schools amounted to £1.101m. Schools could, however, reserve the right to appeal to the Director of Children’s Services. These schools had been informed of the claw back by letter. The deadline for any appeals was 31 May 2014. The remaining 34 schools had until 31 May 2014 to provide justification and supporting evidence for their excess surplus balances. This information would be rigorously reviewed as last year with schools being informed of the result by the end of the summer term.
In line with the Challenge and Support Process for Schools with a Deficit Budget, the Local Authority had received and challenged forecast outturn reports at both 30 September 2013 and 31 December 2013 for those schools projecting a deficit balance for the 2013-14 financial year. As reported to the Forum in April 2014, there were 43 schools projecting a deficit balance with the total net deficit balance for these schools projected at 31 December 2013 being £2.553m. At the financial year end, the total net deficit balance for these 43 school was £2.239m and 7 of these schools had ended the financial year in surplus.
Centrally Retained Dedicated Schools Grant Reserve
The Dedicated Schools Grant reserve at 31st March 2014 was £4.172m. This represented a movement of -£0.842m from the 1st April 2013 balance of £5.014m.
The underspend on the centrally retained DSG budgets in 2013-14 mainly comprised of:
· £1.704m underspend due to a reduction to the recoupment from Cumbria’s 2013-14 DSG allocation for Academies following a review by the DfE of actual expenditure on rates by Academies.