Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: BEST hub, Lanacre Avenue, Grahame Park, Colindale, London NW9 5FN

Contact: School Funding Team  Email: schoolfunding@barnet.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Membership review pdf icon PDF 50 KB

 

 

 

An item reviewing Schools Forum membership for the new academic year.

 

Minutes:

The meeting papers show the revised profile of Schools Forum membership based on October 2016 School and Academy pupil numbers.

 

The Schools Forum now has 8 vacancies, two more vacancies than originally shown. CG stated that volunteers are needed to replace members who have left and requested governor and headteacher members canvass additional volunteers whenever possible.

 

2.

Election of Chair and Vice-Chair

 

 

 

It is once again the time where the Chair and Vice Chair of Schools Forum are elected for the current academic year.  We ask members for their nominations for these positions to take us through until the end of July 2018.

Minutes:

Members were asked to nominate a Chair and Vice Chair-person for the forthcoming academic year.

 

Nigel Taylor (NT) nominated Gilbert Knight (GK); this was seconded by Jeanette Adak (JA).  As there were no other nominations, GK was elected.  

 

Joanne Kelly (JK) nominated Simon Horne (SH) as Vice-Chair; seconded by Jude Stone .As there were no other nominations, SH was elected.  

 

GK chaired the meeting from this point forward.

 

3.

Schools Forum membership

4.

Welcome to new members

Minutes:

GK thanked Schools Forum for their nomination and welcomed new members : Jane Harris – Governor - Garden Suburb school, Annette Long – Moss Hall Nursery and Ruth Taylor – Governor - Trent CE (apologies for this meeting)

 

GK bid farewell to members leaving the Schools Forum: Jodi McCallum – Retiring from Barnet, Matthew Glenn – Leaving St Mary`s and St John`s, Jack Newton – resigned membership and Cllr Salinger – not on any committees as currently the mayor.

 

IH introduced two new CSG officers - Gaspare Nicolini (Senior Finance Business Partner) and Tamara Kulatunga (Deputy School Funding Manager).

 

5.

Apologies

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Ruth Taylor and Cllr. Thompstone.

 

6.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

GK asked if there were any declarations of interest regarding personal pecuniary gain.

 

Keith Nason (KN) declared his interest in De-delegation of Trades Union duties and funding. KN also mentioned that NUT and ATL unions have merged to become The NEU – The National Education Union.

 

7.

Minutes of Previous meeting pdf icon PDF 63 KB

 

 

 

Minutes of the Schools Forum meeting held on 6 July 2017

Minutes:

Agreed as a true and accurate record of the last meeting.

 

8.

Matters arising

Minutes:

None.

 

9.

Items for information

10.

2017/18 Budget monitoring and revised budget pdf icon PDF 82 KB

 

 

Schools Forum members are asked to note and agree the revised 2017/18 Dedicated Schools Grant and schools budget.

Minutes:

GaspareNicolini (GN) presented the Quarter 2 budget monitoring as shown in the agenda.  The main pressures include Early Years reduction in income as a result of January census data (£0.425m), underlying pressure in rising cost of High Needs place expenditure / top ups (£0.342m). NNDR rates revaluations (£0.212m) and adjustment to January funding   – ISB (0.379m).

 

A request made to Schools Forum to approve the additional amount of £1.358m to be charged to brought forward reserves was approved in principle. It was noted that reserves have now dropped down to circa: £1m.

 

Nigel Taylor questioned if this is a historic low for reserves. GN stated that although the balance is historically low for Barnet, we are in a better position than most other local authorities.

 

Jo Djora (JD) asked if increased High Needs costs are common for this time of the year. IH stated it is but that the SEN team are undertaking a review to understand current pressure areas. Val White also mentioned that there is increasing pressure from post-16 students with SEND.

 

11.

2018/19 Apprenticeship levy for community schools

 

 

 

Proposals to follow.

Minutes:

The transitional arrangement for the council to cover the cost of levy contributions for community schools in 2017/18 has come to an end. IH confirmed that this will not continue in 18/19. It was also confirmed that this includes Nursery schools.

However, all schools should be able to draw on training credits available.

 

12.

Towards a National Funding Formula pdf icon PDF 152 KB

8. Towards a National Funding Formula

 

8a) DfE announcements and 2018/19 National Funding Formula proposals

8b) 2018/19 Education Services Grant (ESG)

8c) Draft consultation         

 

Ian Harrison

Education and Skills Director,

Barnet with Cambridge Education

13.

National Funding Formula, DfE announcements and NFF proposals pdf icon PDF 71 KB

Minutes:

IH presented a number of slides (attached to these minutes) on school funding, beginning with slides on the provisional allocation of DSG funding and Barnet’s options for the school funding formula in 2018-19.

 

2018/19 estimated DSG income and expenditure breakdown was presented based on indicative figures based on October 2016 census data. It was highlighted that figures will be subject to change arising from the October 2017 census data and the authority`s final DSG allocation.

 

3 options were presented to Schools Forum. Option 1 - Modified Barnet formula, Option 2 – National Funding formula and option 3 – National formula with additional protection.

 

Option 1 would use a modified Barnet formula. This would exceed the school block income by £97k which would require a transfer from another block or an adjustment to the formula. MFG protection on reductions would continue at -1.5% per pupil.  The schools forum discussed the feasibility of this option and agreed that it would create too much of a strain for losers when the national funding formula is implemented in full.  

 

Option 2 would use NFF rates in the APT exactly as prescribed. This will result in an underspend of £0.820m against the £242,807m available in the schools block. This will leave the MFG at -1.5% (max loss per pupil). The maximum cash gain is likely to be +£162k and the maximum cash loss -£94k.

 

Option 3 will prepare schools for the eventual full implementation of the ‘hard’ National Funding Formula in 2020/21 by providing a smoother transition for losers rather than the big bang approach. This can be achieved by offering improved MFG protection for losers (-0.5% per pupil) but a cap on gains (0.5% per pupil). The maximum cash gain is likely to be +£44k and the maximum cash loss -£31k.

 

The Schools Forum was invited to comment on all 3 options.  The Schools Forum decided to dismiss option 1 (current modified Barnet formula) and it was confirmed that modelling for all schools on Options 2 (NFF) & 3 (NFF with additional protection) will be included in the consultation. Schools Forum and the council recommended option 3.

 

The council will consult all schools on the principles and present the results to the Schools Forum in December. The consultation will be held between mid - October and mid - November.

 

The council is consulting on the principles of protection/ capping, but the actual level of MFG protection and the cap on gains will be agreed when the total 2018/19 DSG funding is known in January as a result of the October 2017 census data.

14.

2018/19 Education Services Grant

 

 

 

Proposals to follow.

Minutes:

IH mentioned that the situation in relation to the removal of the Education Services Grant (the 2016/17 ESG general rate element for Barnet - £2.8m) has not changed. The 2017/18 reduction was absorbed by the council but this may not continue.

 

The council would require the agreement of the maintained schools members of the Schools Forum to de-delegate funding to pay for services that were previously funded from the general rate element of the ESG.  This would affect maintained schools only. If the council were to ask for dedelegation to make up £0.8m or the £2.8m lost income, the average cost per primary maintained school would be £8,500 (varying with pupil numbers) and £17,000 on average for secondary maintained schools.

 

If the authority and Schools Forum are unable to agree on the level of DSG to be retained by the LA to cover retained duties, the LA may refer it to the Secretary of State.

 

Keith Nason (KN) questioned if this de-delegation includes foundation schools, the answer was yes.

 

NT wanted to know if there is a breakdown of this figure rather than based on a single amount per pupil. Simon Horne mentioned that it is not possible to compare costs with other LAs if there is no breakdown available. GN stated that other LAs will also be setting a single rate per pupil.

 

 

Schools Forum noted the current position and noted that a special meeting of the Schools Forum would be held if the council does ask for dedelegation to cover lost ESG income.  The Forum will then wish to consider whether schools should be consulted before the Forum decides its response to the council.

 

15.

Draft consultation

 

 

 

Proposals to follow as no actual ACA data has been released to enable accurate modelling.  Appendix II gives an indication of the DfE provided NFF allocations at school level compared to the Barnet funding formula (both based on October 2016 data).

 

16.

Any other business

Minutes:

BF questioned when each school would be made aware of their draft 18/19 allocation. It was confirmed that indicative figures (based on October 2016 census data) would be circulated as part of the consultation document and revised figures would be circulated after the updated DSG allocations and revised national funding formula allocations, based on 2017 census data, are available in January

 

17.

Draft agenda for next meeting

Minutes:

Members approved the draft agenda for the next meeting.GK closed the meeting by thanking everyone for attending.  The meeting closed at 5.00pm.

 

18.

Appendix I pdf icon PDF 54 KB

 

 

 

Revised 2017/18 Dedicated Schools Grant income and schools budget expenditure.