Apologies were received from Andy Dempsey, James Piper and Clive Star. The forum welcomed Martin Phillips, Head of Finance for Torbay Council, to the meeting.

Minutes of the meeting 13^th October were amended to show Tim Stephens as absent with apologies. Other than this, minutes were agreed to be a true record of the meeting.

The Challenging Homophobia Senior Leadership Training, originally to be held on 7^th December, has been rescheduled.

Further analysis of spending on Vulnerable Pupils is ongoing, Roger Hughes and Rachael Williams will report on this at the next meeting in January.

Dorothy Hadleigh to present

Dorothy Hadleigh presented analysis of costings at both local provisions and alternative providers. Concerns were raised around the budgetary impact of SEN funding now continuing up until the age of 25, and the fact that there is not currently any one in post to monitor this. A working party was set up involving Rachael Williams, Dorothy Hadleigh, Mike Lock, Rob Parr, Debbie Main and John Deringer (South Devon College) to explore the value for money of providers, the outcomes of students placed in provisions, and how to build capacity moving forwards.

Actions: Working party to convene in mid January in order to report to the March Schools Forum to discuss findings.

Roger Hughes

Roger Hughes shared feedback from Vashti Wickers (Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub), who reports that MASH is now reaching statutory timescales. TESS is currently well within budget, although this is partly due to staffing shortages. The idea of recruiting admin staff to help social workers was discussed as a possibility because of this. Feedback from Schools on TESS has been very positive.

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Roger Hughes

Concerns around the current service were raised, particularly around staffing and then inability to recruit. There is however, a new CAMHS Commissioner, Louise Arrow, now in place. Louise will be meeting with SACSAG in January to discuss ongoing concerns, and to look at alternative funding models used by other local authorities. The current contract expires in August 2017, the decision whether or not to renew this will be held at a later date.

Roger Hughes

Roger Hughes shared a verbal update on the Autism Project. It was noted that the level of consistency between schools with autism champions was particularly pleasing.

Adam Morris to present

Adam Morris shared an update. 2 new outreach workers are now in post at Chestnut. ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistants) are planned, and Family Support Workers will need to access Signs of Safety training.

It was proposed that the Schools Forum could have funds available for a full time vulnerable pupils Head of Service, who could be employed on a temporary basis. Andy Dempsey and Rachael Williams will meet to discuss the viability of this before next meeting.

Actions: Proposal will be bought to January Schools Forum for discussion.

Dorothy Hadleigh to present

Dorothy Hadleigh shared a report on the work of the Autism Implementation project. The second group of Autism Champion are due to start training in January 2017. Further analysis of the impact of the project by Mary Bruton (Autism friendly Schools Co-Ordinator) will be taking place in the spring term.

Rachael Williams to present

A report was shared with the Forum detailing changes to Early Years Funding from April 2017, and the Local Authority’s response to these, outlining concerns that the LA is already using the DSG to ‘top up’ current rates.  Significant cuts to funding in Torbay are anticipated, and the Forum will have to budget for the expected reduction in the universal base rate.

Action: to be discussed at January Schools Forum once final paper has been published

Rob Parr, Principal Accountant, highlighted that there is a forecast overspend of £280k in the DSG, the first time since its inception that this will be the case. It is anticipated that any losses for the year will be funded from the following years DSG.

Actions: Rob Parr and Rachael Williams to investigate possible saving measures, with the aim of at least breaking even. To be presented in Januarys Schools Forum.

A vote was taken on the delegation of centrally retained services, it was agreed unanimously to keep this the same as last year, with £28k being retained to service the Schools Forum.

Roger Hughes

It is anticipated that the 2^nd phase of consultation will begin later this year. It is agreed that the Local Authority will write a response to the DfE, to be circulated to schools beforehand.

Actions: Rachael Williams will circulate response to schools before the end of the 2^nd phase of consultation.

Rachael Williams

Rachael Williams shared with the forum a response to March’s government White Paper, Education Excellence Everywhere. Proposals in the paper include the statutory nature of a Schools Forum being removed, however in this occurrence it is proposed by the group that Torbay keeps a Schools Forum in place.

Verbal Update on TESS and CAMHS.

Analysis of Vulnerable Pupils unallocated funds (Roger Hughes  & Rachael Williams).

17/18 DSG.

Fair Funding Consultation.

Education Support Grant.

Early years National Funding Formula.

Thursday 19^th January 2017, Tor Hill House, Mezzanine, Room 3

Thursday 9^th March 2017, Tor Hill House, Mezzanine, Room 3

Thursday 29^th June 2017, Tor Hill House, Mezzanine, Room 3

Thursday 12^th October 2017, Tor Hill House, Mezzanine, Room 3

Thursday 30^th November 2017, Tor Hill House, Mezzanine, Room 3

Thursday 18^th January 2018, Venue TBA

Thursday 8^th March 2018, Venue TBA