Agenda item

2018/19 De-delegation

Minutes:

IH explained that decisions on de-delegation have to be taken at the Schools Forum.  Votes have to be taken separately in respect of maintained primary and maintained secondary schools and in each case the decision requires the agreement of a majority of the maintained representatives for the relevant phase on the Schools Forum.

 

IH confirmed that for the 2018/19 financial year, the council is requesting the following de-delegation items:

 

Existing de-delegation items

1.

Behaviour support services (HIST - currently de-delegated by primaries but not Secondaries)

2.

Support to UPEG and bilingual learners (“Narrowing the Gap”)

3.

Staff costs – supply cover for (trade union) facility time

de-delegation items

 

 

The Schools Forum was asked to approve the continuation of the existing de-delegation at the same rates as 2017/18.

 

For all these budgets, the total amount de-delegated depends on the number of LA maintained schools in Barnet, and how many pupils are on roll. The budget falls if more schools convert to academies, but rise if maintained schools expand, or independent schools join the maintained sector.

The Behaviour Support budget funds the high incidence support team’s (HIST) work with maintained primary schools and the de-delegation rate is proposed to remain unchanged from 2017/18 ( £3.01 per pupil ).

 

The de-delegation rates for ‘Narrowing the Gap’ are proposed to remain unchanged from 2017/18 (£9.55 - Primary and £16.34 - Secondary per pupil).

 

Staff costs for trade union duties funds the salaries of officials of the various unions representing staff in schools. The budget is supplemented by income from a traded service that enables academies to contribute to these costs. This funds the release of staff on union duties. The de-delegation rates are proposed to remain unchanged (£1.66 for Primary and £1.02 for Secondary per pupil).

 

The table below shows the decision for each de-delegation item by phase for the maintained schools:

 

De-delegation

Primary

Secondary

Behaviour Support

Yes - unanimous

 

Narrowing the Gap

Yes - unanimous

Yes - unanimous

Trade Union Duties

Yes - unanimous

Yes - unanimous

 

 

The Schools Forum was asked to approve the new de-delegation items for 2018/19 as follows.

 

New de-delegation items for 2018/19

4.

Additional school Improvement services

IH stated that the LA is proposing as an exception to hold a de-delegated budget in 2018/19 of £101,000 for ‘additional school improvement services’ to enable the school improvement service to continue at its current level.

 

IH stated that the council no longer receives Education Services Grant funding in respect of school improvement services to maintained schools.  Council funding for these services is estimated to be around £450,000. In 2017/18 the council received a school improvement grant of £192,000 from the DfE towards the cost of statutory school improvement services; it is not yet clear whether the grant will continue beyond this year or at what level

 

The de-delegation rate proposed is £3.55 per Primary pupil and £1.80 per Secondary pupil. This would equate to a similar average contribution per phase (primary and secondary), as school improvement support does not tend to vary with the size of school.  

 

5.

Contingencies

IH requested that the Authority is permitted to hold a de-delegated budget in 2018/19 of £61,000 for schools specific contingency.

This would enable cover for unforeseen expenditure not known when the school budget shares are originally allocated, such as business rate revaluations IH confirmed that the proposed budget is based on experience this year.

 

The de-delegation rate requested for both Primary and Secondary maintained schools is £2 per pupil.

 

The table below shows the decision for each de-delegation item by phase for the maintained schools:

 

De-delegation

Primary

Secondary

School contingency

Yes - unanimous

Yes - unanimous

School improvement services

Yes - unanimous

Yes - unanimous

 

Supporting documents: