Location / The Professional Centre, Winchester
Held on / Thursday 5 March 2015, 6.00pm – 7.30pm
Present: / Julie Amies / Shirley Nellthorpe
Alastair Angwin / Terry Tillman
Robin Gray / Andrew Turk
Jill Hall / Dave Wright
Martina Humber
Richard Johnson / Mandy Parsons
Andrew March / Helen Hardy (clerk)
Apologies: / Mark Barlow / Trevor Pitman
Peter Higgs / Tina Woodcock
Roy Lee
No / Note / Action
1 / Welcome and apologies
The Chair welcomed Jill Hall to the HGA as a new academy representative. Apologies were received and noted as above.
2 / Notes of 16 October 2014 and 4 December 2014
The notes of the meeting of the previous two meetings were accepted as a true and accurate record.
3 / Matters Arising
IBC
Mandy Parsons met with the Schools Liaison Officer for the IBC to discuss how Governor Services can help to share messages with governors, e.g. through direct mailings as well as Schools Comms. Dave Wright confirmed that Graham Ferguson (IBC Champion in Children’s Services) attended the recent Western Forumand this was very useful.
4 / Draft County Governor Forum Agenda
Matters Arising - John Coughlan has replied directly to Alastair Angwin about attendance of looked after children and he has received follow up emails from two Children’s Services colleagues. He was happy with the response received.
Feedback on audit days for free school meals from JCl requested. There is a concern at national level that parents are not now applying for their FSM and therefore are not receiving the Pupil Premium funding (previously raised at county forums). Schools are trying different methods to ensure that parents eligible for FSM funding complete the forms.
Attendance – communication to parents can seem as though this is a “revenue grab” for the County and the mention of “sessions” is confusing. Members requested clarification about who receives the money from fines for both maintained schools and academies. Members also felt it would be useful to understand what happens if schools ignore the new regulations. There may be thematic reviews by Internal Audit and Ofsted will look at the attendance data.
Internal Audit – there was some discussion around the need for DBS checks in maintained schools for staff, governors and volunteers. It was suggested that this be raised with Amanda Stevens at the meeting.
Outdoor Education / Visits / trips – moved to June meeting due to diary clash
EPS update – standard items
Additional agenda item – abolition of levels and what will come after this. Is there a County view and if so, would it be helpful to have someone come in and speak. JCl can speak to this at the meeting and it will be added to the June agenda. / M Parsons
M Parsons
5 / Local Forum Items
Western – Cllr Edgar attended and spoke and did a Q&A session. Graham Ferguson (Children’s Services IBC Champion), took questions, wrote a report and took to the IBC the next day. 60/40 split with schools selecting model 1 / 2 is to be looked at again next year. ( - see meeting papers for 20 January meeting, item 6)
Eastern – Cllr Edgar also attended. Some ongoing agitation about the glazing survey.
Northeast – IBC, universal school meals for infants / FSM and Pupil Premium but no items to bring forward
6 / IBC – Review of Current Position
It was agreed to maintain this as an agenda item to show schools that we are trying to keep the pressure on officers to deliver.
- The specific issues raised at the Western Forum were: slowness; time taken for AOs in schools to do their work; lack of visibility of stage invoices are at; late payments of local, small suppliers.
- Payment on time – was 95% pre-IBC and is now standing at 85% and governors felt it would be more appropriate to aim for 100% of approved invoices paid on time.
- What about payment of surcharges – at previous meeting, IBC representatives stated that if late payment is their fault, they will pay the charges. However, it may be that fault is put back to schools by the IBC.
- Delay in Purchase Orders being sent out – school staff and governors do not know what happens at the back end of the system.
- There are still some issues around the wrong schools being paid and small amounts may not be noticed by Business Managers.
- Better management reporting should be coming out of this new system and this is required urgently.
- The reputational damage to the County is enormous, especially in light of recent news coverage. Fundamental mistrust of the system and officers need to get a grip on this before it becomes a toxic problem. There is a deep mistrust of what school staff are being told by the IBC.
- The decision to move to option 1 is worrying from a financial rigor perspective but makes sense from a practice perspective for schools, especially smaller schools. The provision of choice of option 1 or 2 could cause real problems for suppliers, supplying schools who have selected different options.
- Concern about rollout to Oxfordshire County Council and the potential impact on Hampshire schools.
7 / HGA Representatives Feedback from Meetings
NGA
The National Conference was in November and issues discussed were: sports funding from the Department of Health with the objective of making children fitter and healthier; changes in Ofsted inspections from September 2015 in light of Trojan Horse reports; NGA clerking accreditation.
The next area meeting is on 24th March.
Admissions Forum
The meeting took place this morning. The final admission policies for 2015/16 were looked at for approval. There was further discussion deferred entry for summer born children. The DfE are looking to clarify the guidance on the linking of when they take the exam rather than their age (e.g. for GCSE). HTs expressed concern around the deferral of admission.
There was an update on the secondary school main admissions round. There were 12,962 applications – approximately 94% got 1st choice, just under 5% got their 2nd choice, and around 1% got their 3rd choice and less than 1% were allocated. There is an imbalance in secondary provision with places not available where they are needed. Around 10 secondaries / academies have had more offers than their PAN, mainly in the Fleet area and a few in the Eastern area. Imbalance of secondary provision – places not where they are needed.
Schools Forum
Budget approval for 2015/16. The Supporting Young People’s Participation bid was unsuccessful. There was a presentation on the capital programme.
Hampshire Children’s Trust Board
Not met since the previous meeting.
8 / Feedback from Children and Young People’s Select Committee
There were 2 reports on finance, previously discussed at HGA and Schools Forum.
It was agreed to fund short breaks for this year and defer the proposed cuts but there is no commitment to fund it in future years.
Report on educational attainment for 2013/14 – Early Years and primary performed very well and there is a disparity with secondary attainment (although less than the previous year).
CYPP Plan – John Coughlan did a very brief presentation on it. A consultation has just started and officers are very keen to receive responses on this. ( / ALL
9 / Correspondence
There was no correspondence.
10 / Chairman’s Items
None.
11 / Treasurer’s Items
Up to date figures are not available. This will be brought to the next meeting. Members were reminded to submit travel claims to Angela Donnelly.
12 / Dates of Future Meetings
14 May 2015
HGA Minutes 2015-03-05Page 1 of 4