Agenda and minutes

GK welcomed Lucy Rodgers (Headteacher, All Saints N20), Sarah Sands (Headteacher, Collindale), Jack Newton (Executive Headteacher, Underhill), Alexander Banks (Headteacher, Wessex Gardens), Curtis Sweetingham (Headteacher, St. Johns N20), Ziz Chater (Headteacher, Dollis Infant), Dr. Matthew Stevens (Principal, Saracens), and Lucy Harrison (Headteacher, The Archer Academy).

Apologies were received from Annette Long, Gavin Smith, Ayalah Hirst, and Sarah Vipond. Caron Rudge and Gavin Smith attended as substitutes for AL and GS.

JN stated that he was also the executive headteacher of an academy.

IK stated there was an error on page 4, he asked if the education share of joint placement costs were fair on the education budget.

AB stated that he was shown as a Secondary VA Governor on page 2, he is a Secondary Academy Governor.

CR stated that Anette Long is shown as representing BEYA on page 2, she represents Moss Hall Nursery.

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IH summarised the proposals that were sent to schools for consultation. The consultation documents were issued on 1^st November 2018 to headteachers, and chairs and vice-chairs of governing bodies. And were then presented and discussed at:

·         The termly Director’s meeting with Headteachers on 1^st November 2018.

·         An extraordinary meeting of the Chairs and Vice-Chairs of school governing bodies on 14^th November 2018.

·         The meeting of the secondary Headteachers Forum on 15^th November 2018.

There are three proposals which Barnet have put forward to schools, which are:

Proposal 1:    A proposal to fund some services, previously funded from the Education Services Grant, from the budget shares of maintained primary and secondary schools.

Proposal 2:    A proposal to increase De-delegation from maintained school budgets to continue the school improvement (LNI) service in its current form.

Proposal 3:    A proposal to transfer 0.5% of the Schools Block to the High Needs Block.

Proposal 1 is a consequence of the removal of the Education Services Grant from the council. The council has lost £2.8m of funding of statutory services to maintained schools, including:

·         Statutory and regulatory duties

·         Asset management

·         Premature retirement and redundancy

·         Monitoring national curriculum assessments

The total amount it is proposed to use for funding these services is £1m.

The benefits of the proposals are that the council can continue to provide statutory services to maintained schools without having to make further cuts to other front-line services that have already faced significant budget reductions. The disadvantages of the proposal are that he money is deducted from the budget shares of maintained schools.

If the proposal is not agreed then the council will have to find the £1m requested elsewhere, as well as the £1.5m it already has to find, as the council cannot legally stop funding these services. As budget limits have been set by each service committee, it is expected the savings would have to come from other front-line services in education or children’s social care, which already have faced significant cuts in funding.

Proposal 2 asks the maintained schools’ representatives to agree to increase the amount of De-delegated funding for the school improvement service from £101,000 to £310,000. The request is to cover the loss of the ‘school improvement grant’ and enable the school improvement (LNI) service to continue in its current form.

The benefits of the proposal are that it will ensure the continuation of the current non-traded school improvement service, in the event that the DFE school improvement grant ceases in August 2019. The disadvantages are that it means money is deducted from the budget shares of maintained schools.

If the proposal is not agreed, it will be necessary to reduce the council funding for the Learning Network Inspector team to a single post, tasked with carrying out the core statutory functions envisaged by the DFE, with significant reliance on the use of data, as the resource is unlikely to be sufficient to allow for regular visits to schools.

Proposal 3 is due to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7a

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Tuesday 11^th December 2018  -Cancelled

TBC- January 2019- brought forward from February 2019

Thursday 7^th February 2019

Tuesday 7^th May 2019

Thursday 11^th July 2019

(Venue for future meetings to be confirmed).

It was noted that the meetings scheduled for 11 December 2018 and 7^th February 2019 were being cancelled and instead there would be a meeting on Tuesday 15^th January 2019.

Further meetings:

Tuesday 7^th May 2019

Thursday 11^th July 2019

(Venues for future meetings to be confirmed)