Date: 10 October 2012
REPORT TITLE: SCHOOL FORUM (ENGLAND) REGULATIONS 2012
Report by: Yannick Stupples-Whyley
Contact details: (01245) 433171; e-mail
1. Purpose of report
1.1This report provides Schools Forum with revised Terms of Reference (Annex A) following the publication of The School Forum (England) Regulations 2012 (Annex B)
2. Recommendations
2.1To note the School Forum (England) Regulations 2012.
2.2To agree the revised Terms of Reference.
3. Relevance to Strategic Plans
3.1Schools Forumsupports the strategic objectives of the LA to develop a world class education system in Essex.
4.Finance Implications
5. Other Resource Implications
6. Background
6.1The School Forum (England) Regulations 2012 came into force on 1st October 2012 and require that every authority must ensure that their Schools Forum is constituted in accordance with regulations 4 to 7 by this date.
6.2The key changes from the 2010 Regulations are as follows
- No longer a requirement to have 15 members;
- Where there is at least one maintained secondary school in an authority, at least one representative should come from a maintained secondary school:
- Where there is at least one maintained PRU, they are required to have representation on Schools Forum as a school member to reflect their status of having a delegated budget from April 2013;
- Among members of maintained schools at least one should represent governing bodies and at least one should represent headteachers;
- There is a restriction on local authority members and officers, limited to the Lead Member for education, children’s services or resources, Director of Children’s Services (or their representative), Chief Finance Officer (or their representative) or officers providing specific financial or technical advice. In addition officers who present reports are able to participate in their specific agenda item;
- The Education Funding Agency has been granted observer status;
- In order to reflect the complete delegation for some services, the requirement to consult Schools Forum annually about arrangements for free school meals and insurance have been removed;
- The key change to voting is that only school members can vote with regard to the Formula for Funding Schools; and
- To increase transparency of Schools Forum meetings must be held in public and papers, minutes and decisions must be published in a public area of the Authority’s website.
6.3The Authority in compliance with the requirement to base maintained school and academy representation based on the number of pupils in each category as of September 2012 needs to convert a secondary maintained position to an academy position.
6.4The Authority in agreement with Schools Forum where applicable converted maintained members into academy members to continue to serve their term of office. As an additional secondary academy member is required and given the important decisions on school funding to be taken, the Authority proposes to convert John Hunter to an academy post until March 2013 to reflect JamesHornbySchool becoming an academy on 1st October 2012.
6.5Future appointment of Academy representatives will be through nominations from Academies.
6.6To reflect the changes to membership and the School Forum Regulations the Terms and Reference of the Essex Schools Forum has been amended. A draft Terms and Reference is shown in Annex A.
7. Consultation with stakeholders
8. Background / Supporting papers
8.1Draft Terms of Reference (Annex A)
8.2School Forum (England) Regulations 2012
1