Agenda and draft minutes

VW welcomed Jenny Keable from the LBB School Funding team who was attending the Forum for the first time.

Apologies were received from Tony Vourou, Matthew Glenn, Lesley Ludlow, Keith Nason, Jo Kelly and Chris Munday

Post-meeting apologies were received from Perina Holness

None.

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

JD asked how the Apprenticeship Levy will affect schools.  IH replied that most individual schools and academies would not be charged as they are too small.  Academy chains are likely to have to pay the levy.  The area of uncertainty is the community schools which may be counted as part of the council for the purposes of the levy.  Hopefully more information will be received by the December Schools Forum meeting. 

VW said that Wave 11 of new free schools has been announced with three new schools in Barnet.  These will be the Saracens High School, Compton Cricklewood and the Windmill all-through special school for pupils with autism.  Applications for the next wave have just closed.  On current projections, Barnet’s basic need for places has now been met and any further free schools would be responding to parental choice rather than lack of places, and Barnet would be likely to oppose surplus places being created.

This item was deferred as the meeting was not quorate.

The Schools Forum now has 7 vacancies and a recruitment drive is needed to replace members who have left.  EP pointed out that there are also a number of members whose term of office has come to an end.  EP and SV are happy to stand for another term.

NT is no longer a governor at Wessex Gardens but is on the Childs Hill governing body and so will remain a member representing community primary schools.

a)    2015/16 Budget Monitoring – Final Outturn

b)    School Balances at 31 March 2016

c)    2016/17 Budget Monitoring

8b        School Balances at 31 March 2016 – Nick Adams

NA introduced the paper and associated table.  Balances have fallen a little overall but there is wide variation and no obvious pattern.  While some schools have large balances others have needed support with redundancy costs and licensed deficits.  St Michaels has now cleared their deficit.

A discussion followed about how schools might be encouraged to use balances perhaps through a clawback mechanism.  GK said schools were naturally being cautious in these uncertain times and EP echoed this.  NA and IH also admitted that when investigations had been done in the past, schools have said they were saving for projects which did not  always materialise.  However without any kind of sanction there was little the LA could do.  IH felt the best approach was for Learning Network Inspectors to link balances to school achievement, and for schools to be expected to use available resources to rectify low achievement.  NA said energies had been put into preventing schools falling into deficit rather than challenging schools with surpluses.  VW said that a recent review of London authorities showed that in the main, there are perhaps surprisingly few schools in deficit.

8c        2016/17 Schools Budget – Q1 budget monitoring

CP presented the paper and associated table.  The projected underspend at Quarter 1 (Apr-Jun 2016) has now become a projected overspend due to a reduction in early years income and the rising cost of high needs placements for Post 16 students.

JD queried where the £2.8m carried forward from 2015/16 was shown in the 2016/17 budget.  CP explained that underspends are put in a reserve and only the amount needed to balance the 2016/17 budget  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

a)    Consultations and announcements

Members are asked to note Barnet’s responses to previous consultations and be aware of the timeline of future announcements relating to the Dedicated Schools Grant and School Funding.

b)    Draft 17/18 budget including school funding formula

This report is to advise members of expected budget pressures in preparing the 2017/18 budget. A balanced budget projection will be presented to Schools Forum at the next meeting in December.

c)    APT modelling

We are asking members to confirm their approval for amending the funding formula rates used in the APT to reflect the new IDACI bands whilst ensuring as little turbulence to schools as possible.

d)    Barnet EY consultation

1.    Welcome to new members

2.    Apologies for absence

3.    Declarations of interest

4.    Election of Chair and Vice Chair

5.    Minutes of previous meeting

6.    Matters arising

7.    Items for information

·         2016/17 Budget budget monitoring

8.    Towards a National Funding Formula- including

·         Results of Consultations

·         2017/18 Schools budget

·         Reserve for previous year underspends

·         De-delegation by maintained schools

·         School funding formula for 2017/18

·         Changes to the Scheme for Financing Schools

9.    Draft agenda for next meeting – February 2016

10. Any other business

8^th December 2016             

February 2017 (tba)

11^th May 2017 (provisional)

6^th July 2017 (provisional) 

There being no other business, GK closed the meeting by thanking everyone for attending.  The meeting closed at 5.30pm