Apologies were received from Jessica Humphry (who was represented by Pete Maunder), David Theobald (who was represented by Helen Brown), Suzie Franklin and James Evans

Daneian Rees and Sharon Wallwork were welcomed as observers.

The Chair and Forum noted that Sue Foot would be a representative on the School Forum (Academy) and not Bob Owers.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 6^th December 2012

The Minutes of the meeting of the Schools’ Forum held on 6^th December 2012 were confirmed as a correct record. 

The Chair requested that the Clerk bring forward the three action points in the  minutes of 6^th December for discussion at  the meeting in February.

2(i)  Optional de-delegation for maintain schools:  B7 Behaviour support services – progress report to February meeting

3(i) Chair of TASH to forward two names (1 Headteacher representative from an Academy plus 1 representative from the 14-19 partnership)

ii) Jean Wilder (Chair of Torbay Governors Association) to inform Clerk of 1 secondary governor representative and 1 representative from a primary governor

5(ii) Special School and PRU funding; further clarification requested on projection of places and the monitoring of places – recommendations and solutions back to School Forum in February 2013

7(i) Children’s Services Finance team to report back to the February School Forum on the numbers of independent SEN placements and costs (Rob Parr)

Item 2: Increased delegation of Dedicated School Gran in 2013/14

Optional de-delegation for maintained schools

B5. Staff costs – Teacher Unions Facilities

The School Forum debated the pros and cons of having funding issues discussed whilst the Union member was present.  The Chair agreed that in future any decisions regarding funding when the service representative was present, that they would be asked to leave the meeting for voting purposes

5.4 i) The Head of School Commissioning has sent an email to schools updating them on the budget allocations and information relating to changes when schools become Academies

Lisa Finn, Principal Accountant, Children’s Services introduced a previously circulated paper which explained the background on how the Dedicated Schools Grant 2013/14 will be distributed following the Government’s intention to introduce a national funding formula.

The School Forum considered the table which showed year on year changes for 2013/14; noting that of the £2.3m cash increase, £0.5m relates to increased pupil numbers and the remaining £1.8m relates to new funding arrangements as listed in the table.

The main changes and arrangements for 2013/14 are:-

·         A separate schools blocks, early years block and high needs block (new system for funding high needs pupils will not be introduced for post 16 students until August 2013) Schools block per pupil numbers based on October 2012 school census.

·         A cash flat per pupil funding for the schools block and early years block

·         Minimum Funding Guarantee(MFG) of minus 1.5%

·         Transitional protection for local authorities in receipt of the three year old 90% funding floor will be removed in 20914/15

·         Funding for Induction for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) to be delegated directly to all schools through local funding formulae

·         The 2013/14 DSG allocation includes an amount for funding 2 year olds in early years settings

School Forum raised their concerns relating to issues around the monitoring and checking of the induction for newly qualified teachers.

The Head of School Commissioning responded to questions relating to the high needs block.

The Head of School Commissioning explained to the School Forum that the DfE had set a deadline of 22^nd January for all LAs to have set their school budgets and that an extraordinary meeting was called today to enable the School Forum to discuss pressures and savings within the DSG as any changes after the deadline could not be made.

The School Forum considered and debated the DSG 2013/14 potential areas of pressures which were:-

1.    Joint Funded Special School placements – overspend of £308k as a result of three additional placements in 12/13; 2 more placements are likely in 2013/14 = total pressure 2013/14 £470k

The Chair asked Forum members to consider and agree the increase of the PVI funding rate to £4 per hour.

The School Forum voted unanimously to the increase of the PVI funding rate to £4 per hour

2.    Independent Special Schools fees: continued £200k pressure into 13/14

3.    No recoupment between Local Authorities:

4.    Increased costs of special school places (£40k)

5.    Increased numbers of statements in mainstream schools (£515k)

6.    Chestnut provision - £622k

The School Forum recognised the potential pressure for 2014/15 for the funding of 2 year old places in Early Years setting.

The School Forum considered and discussed the potential areas for savings to balance the DSG pressures in 2013/14 relating to:

·         School Improvement Service (£100k)

·         Chestnut premises (£65k)

·         Pegasus combined with Chestnut (£160k)

·         Academy recoupment (£500k)

·         Capital repairs and maintenance (£150k)

·         EOTAS staff transfer (£200k)

·         BESD pupils transferred from Kings Ash to Chestnut (£80k)

·         Statementing contingency (£140k)

The School Forum agreed to the delegated savings for:-

·         14-16 Practical Learning: Provisional £260k delegated – saving £150k

·         Extended Services: Provisional £70k delegated – saving £150k

·         Behaviour support: Provisional £50k delegated – saving £150k

The School Forum raised their concerns regarding the School Improvement Service saving of £100k and talked about the implications of not having that support available to schools. 

The School Forum agreed that the School Improvement proposed savings should not be included in the savings for 2013/14.

7^th February 2013

21^st March 2013

The Forum agreed to change the next two School Forum meetings to allow for a comparative analysis of the new formula allocations to be presented.

The meeting dates on 7^th February and 21^st March 2013 will be cancelled and replaced with a new date on 7^th March 2013

Actions:

i)             Chair to forward Clerk new schedule of School Forum meetings for 2013