Peterborough Schools Forum

Transcription

1 Peterborough Schools Forum Wednesday, 22 nd October :30am to 11:00am Room NM3, Northminster House Attendees Nick Guest (Chair) (NG) Thorpe Primary School Primary Representative Mike Sandeman (MS) Arthur Mellows Village College Academy Representative Mark Woods (MW) Nene Park Academy Academy Representative Christine Gillingham Jack Hunt Secondary School Representative Richard Lord (RL) Ken Stimpson Community School Secondary School Representative Rhys Thrower (RT) Wittering Primary School Primary Representative Deborah Reynolds (DR) Norwood Primary Primary Representative Rachel Hutchinson All Saints Primary School Primary Representative Adam Brewster (AB) Heltwate Special School Special School Representative Debbie Hayes Caverstede Nursery Nursery School Representative Jonathan Lewis () Assistant Director for Education, Peterborough City Council Resources and Corporate Property Steve Whitley (SW) Head of Schools & Settings Finance Peterborough City Council Margaret Courtman (MC) Senior Accountant Peterborough City Council Colette Firth (CF) Peterborough Diocese Board of Education Observer Sadie Wiles (SW) School Business Manager Observer Sarah Gordon (SG) Business Support Officer Peterborough City Council Apologies Emma Ward Highlees Primary School Primary Representative Simon Eardley (SE) Orton Wistow Primary Primary Representative Neil Grayson (NG) Alpha Kindergarden PVI Representative Val Grys (VG) The Learning Tree PVI Representative Claire George (CG) Pupil Referral Unit PRU Representative Phillippa Cherry Governors Leadership Group Governor Representative Councillor John Holdich Cabinet Member for Education (Skills & Observer (JH) University) Caroline Behan (CB) School Business Manager Observer Anne Byrne (ABy) Hampton Vale Primary School Primary Representative 1. Apologies / Declaration of Interest / Housekeeping Action 1.1 Apologies received as above. 1.2 Housekeeping issues covered. 1.3 Declaration of Interest NG will be submitting a paper in Item 5 for consideration from the forum. 2. Minutes of the Last Meeting and Matters Arising 2.1 Amendments - It was noted that Mike Sandeman was in attendance at the last meeting and that Rhys Thrower has replaced Christine Moss. Page 1 of 5

2 2.2 Minutes from the last meeting were agreed as a true and accurate record. 2.3 De-Delegations NQT Inductions apologised for not sending out the Statistics and confirmed he will send the information out. 2.4 Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) Take-up confirmed that the LA would publish figures on UIFSM take-up based on information published in the October 2014 schools census. The LA would also identify the take-up required in January 2015 to avoid any downward adjustment in funding. 2.5 noted that a member of the BBC was looking to write a story on UIFSM in Peterborough. Forum members asked for further clarification of what is deems as appropriate issue of a meal, and what the classification of a meal was. to gather this information. SW 2.6 EMAS UK Software confirmed that the licence has been renewed. 3. Pupil Level Funding Differential 3.1 SW took the Schools Forum through the Pupil Level Funding, which was prepared following a request from the last Schools Forum meeting to review the differential in pupil level finding between the schools. The Forum were asked to consider the content of the report and discuss. 3.2 commented that the information is a good piece of analysis but must been looked at with a degree of subjectivity. In addition to this felt that Peterborough s position is relatively moderate compared to the national levels and Peterborough s statistical neighbours. 3.3 MS noted that there are a number of schools at the lower end of the funding range in Peterborough that are really struggling financially. Moving Peterborough s funding formula closer to the national average or statistical neighbour average could mean that the funding differential between the highest and lowest funded schools will grow. stated that this is to be continually reviewed and felt that there must be a minimum level to ensure the school can continue to run. 3.4 Forum members questioned whether there was a link between the highest funded schools and schools with large balances. felt that there was not a link and that levels of balances were due to the decision making of how funding made available to schools is used. 3.5 Forum questioned whether training could be made available to headteachers on monitoring budgets to ensure balances were maintained at a reasonable level. SW confirmed that three budget monitoring courses had already been offered and taken up by schools this year. 3.6 Forum members questioned whether it would be useful for schools to be able to benchmark their spend against local schools. SW confirmed that this information had already been produced and was available from the Peterborough Education Network. SW is to share the local benchmarking information with all forum members. 4. Combined Budgets 4.1 SW took the Schools Forum through the Combined Budgets paper, which provided a breakdown and description of the proposed combined budgets for 2015/16. The Forum were asked to consider and approve the top-slices made for the Combined budgets. Page 2 of 5

3 4.2 SW proposed to reduce the PLP contribution from the DSG for 2015/16 from 80k to 50k. 4.3 SW proposed creating a commissioning budget for special schools in 2015/16. This budget will be create by relocating funds from the PLP ( 30k) and money previously held back for developing a Peterborough recruitment website ( 10k). 4.4 It was queried that if PLP are working towards being self-sustaining, then would it be possible to completely withdraw the funding and put it towards another project? confirmed that this could be possible. 4.5 Monitoring of Top Sliced Budgets by Forum Members 4.6 NG tabled a proposal for monitoring the effectiveness and impact of services being funded from combined budgets (top-sliced DSG). NG proposed that at the next Schools Forum meeting, officers from each of the suggested services are to be invited to meet with a small group of Forum Members. During the meeting the officers will be asked a number questions. The aim of the meeting is for the group judge the effectiveness of the service and decide if the service should continue to be funded in 2015/ is to invite officers from the following services to engage in discussion, within breakout rooms, about funds they have received, how it has been spent, what engagement there has been with schools and the impact they believe their service has had: Headspace Eco-Schools PLP NQT s EAL Academy Union Reps Educational Physiologists 4.8 is to arrange for the availability of additional meeting rooms and make suggestions of suitable forum members to speak with the individual representatives from the identified areas. 5 Growth Funding 5.1 SW took the Schools Forum through the Growth Funding paper, which reviews the 2014/15 growth funding and proposes the following: There are no changes made to the way the growth fund operates for 2015/16 The level of top-slice is maintained at 2.25M Any unallocated funding from the 2014/15 growth fund is allocated to schools in 2015/16 using the Peterborough s funding formula. 5.2 It was queried as to why Schools Forum is to approve the Growth Funding now and not in January. SW confirmed that Schools Forum is to preliminary approve the budgets in preparation for the October 2014 APT submission to the EFA. 6. October Schools Block Budget Pro-forma Submission 6.1 SW took Schools Forum through the October Schools Block Budget Pro-forma Submission. It was noted that the information is based on October 2013 Census data and was therefore not reflective of what schools would actually receive in 2015/16. The main aim of the October submission was to identify funding formula changes. Page 3 of 5

4 6.2 It was highlighted that the proportion of funding allocated for Deprivation had increased from 7.6% to 8.3%. The primary:secondary ratio remained unchanged at Page 1 of the report detailed the 2015/16 distribution totals/reconciliations, allocation of additional resources generated from Minimum Funding Levels (MFL) plus recycled MFG and a comparison of the funding formula unit values 2014/15 vs 2015/16. Comparisons of individual school allocations were made between 2014/15 and 2015/16 on pages 3 and 4 of the report. Page 5 of the report detailed the academy recoupment allocation. 7 Hospitality Policy 7.1 SW took the Schools Forum through the Hospitality Policy which was prepared following a request from July 2014 meeting, where a paper was presented to the Schools Forum that raised a number of issues within the hospitality spend within schools. Schools Forum were asked to comment on the model policy prior to it being shared with governors and headteachers. 7.2 A number of Forum members queried the reasons why there is a need for a model policy. gave some examples of some of the issues that he was aware of and confirmed that there is a need for some guidance to ensure Headteachers protect themselves from potential allegations. 7.3 It was noted that where an academy is investigated by the EFA the full findings are published. 7.4 It was noted that not all members were in agreement to follow the model policy, but it was felt that all schools should ensure that they all should have a Hospitality Policy that is signed off by the Chair of Governors. 7.5 It was agreed that the model policy will be shared at the headteacher meetings and governors meetings. Any further comments on the current proposed policy should be sent to SW. All 8 Section 251 Benchmarking 8.1 took the Schools Forum through the Section 251 Benchmarking report and asked for the members to review Appendix 1 and 2 and identify whether further analysis on spend is required. 8.2 Appendix 1 provides Forum members with a copy of Peterborough s S251 budget statement for shown at a net level. 8.3 Appendix 2 provides the full breakdown of the Section 251 budget statement with details on Peterborough s relative position compared to our statistical neighbours and to the England average. 8.4 confirmed that Peterborough City Council were to make 23m budget cuts before October 2014 and so far they are 1m short. On 14 th November 2014 the budget proposals will be announced. stated that there will not be any budget cuts within education for 2015/ It was confirmed that at this time no further analysis on spend was required. Page 4 of 5

5 9 Agenda for Next Meeting 9.1 As detailed throughout the minutes. 10 Any Other Business 10.1 None discussed. 11 Date and Time of next meeting Date: Wednesday, 10 th December 2014 Time: 9:30am 12:00pm Venue: Northminster House NM5 Page 5 of 5