Agenda and minutes

            Resolved – That Steve Colledge (Academy Headteacher) be appointed as Chair of the Schools Forum.

(Steve Colledge in the Chair)

            Resolved – That Paul Boyles (Academy Governor) be appointed as Vice-Chair of the Schools Forum.

To receive the minutes of the meeting held on 25 September 2012.

The minutes of 3 July 2012 are also attached for information.

            Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting held on 25 September 2012 be confirmed and signed as a correct record

            Steve Haley (Head of Finance-Education and Innovation) presented a report on the latest position of the 2012/13 retained Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) budget.

Mr Haley apologised for the late issue of the papers before commenting on the report. He advised that based on information to the end of August 2012, there was a projected underspend of approximately £1.0m against the retained DSG budget for the current year and annex A to the report provided details on the budget areas which were causing the underspend. The main areas were Academy LACSEG (Local Authority Central Services Equivalent Grant) recoupment and Early Years Nursery provision as projected spend on both budgets was substantially lower than was anticipated when the retained budget was set. In addition, there was a balance of £0.33m brought forward from 2010/11 and 2011/12 making a potential sum of £1.33m available for distribution in 2013/14. To mitigate against any uncertainties, the Local Authority (LA) was proposing to redistribute half of this amount across the local formula in 2013/14 with the remainder being allocated in 2014/15 to provide a cushion for schools and academies across the two years.

Members noted that the LA was still pressing for the return of £222,000 from the Education Funding Agency (EFA) which had been recouped from the LA at the start of the year. This sum related to transitional funding allocated to academies which the LA had expected the EFA to then passport on to the five academies during 2013/14 in accordance with current funding arrangements.  As a consequence of the Department for Education school funding reform programme the EFA had confirmed that they would not be passing on the transitional funding as Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG) protection would apply instead. The EFA would not however refund the £222,000 back to the LA and this matter had now been taken up by the Board Director, Finance, Revenues, Benefits and Property. The Forum added its support to the return of this money from the EFA.

            Resolved – That the Schools Forum:

1) Notes that based on information available at the end of August 2012, an in year underspend of approximately £1.0m is projected against the 2012/13 retained Dedicated Schools Grant budget.

2) Notes that a total of £0.3m remains available from 2010/11 and 2011/12.

3) Notes that the Local Authority is provisionally forecasting that £1.3m of funding will be carried forward at the end of the current financial year and agrees to the distribution of £0.650m as part of the 2013/14 budget setting process with approximately £0.650m to be redistributed in 2014/15.

This report will be emailed to members as soon as possible and will be available in hard copy at the meeting.

            The Forum considered a report by Steve Haley (Head of Finance - Education and Innovation) regarding the Local Authority’s proposals for a range of 2013/14 pre-16 formula and funding issues following the September 2012 consultations. The report included information on the indicative impact of the formula changes on individual settings and proposals on how the LA proposed to manage the costs of meeting the Minimum Funding Guarantee.

Derek Fry (Special Governor) commented on the late issue of the report which had not been circulated until the previous afternoon. It was a lengthy and complex report and he felt that the late distribution did not give members time to properly absorb the information. Mr Haley apologised and explained that this was due to the need to consult and agree proposals via the Schools Forum within a challenging DfE imposed timetable.  He also confirmed that reports for the January 2013 meeting should be issued at the proper time. 

Mr Haley talked members through the report, commenting on the key issues, highlighting the decisions required by the Forum and answering questions on each section.  He explained that extensive consultation had taken place on the funding areas open to local determination and the proposals in the report were based on the feedback from those consultations. He thanked all those who had been involved with the process.

Centrally Retained Funding Proposals  

Mr Haley presented draft budget proposals in line with the new categories of retained spending established by DfE starting with “Central Items” as listed in Table 2 which totalled £502,000 and were agreed.  Mr Haley then referred to “Central Schools Items” which were shown in Table 3 and included pupil growth.  For 2013/14 this was focused on the primary sector as that was where growth was currently taking place. Swindon Association of Secondary Heads (SASH) had confirmed that it was happy with the proposals in principle but considered that this area may need to be revisited once the cohort reached secondary age as the amount allocated for set-up costs might not be sufficient. The Forum noted that the sum of £27,000 initially set aside for infant class size funding had not been considered necessary by Swindon Association of Primary Heads (SAPH) and had been deleted resulting in a total of £574,000 for 2013/14 central schools items, which was agreed.

Funding allocated to services which were subject to de-delegation was detailed in Table 4. These amounts had first to be allocated to all settings and whereas academies would keep the funding to buy into LA services if they wished, maintained schools could collectively agree for it to be de-delegated back to the Local Authority (LA) to avoid the need for Traded Service arrangements.

Both SAPH and SASH had disagreed with the sum of £22,100 allocated to Trade Union release funding so this budget proposal had been deleted by the LA. Peter Smith (Trade Unions) expressed surprise at this decision as he felt an alternative process could prove more costly to schools. He asked that a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

The next meeting of the Forum is on Tuesday, 15 January 2013 at 4.00 p.m. in Committee Room 6, Civic Offices, Euclid Street, Swindon.

            It was noted that the next meeting of the Forum would take place on Tuesday, 15 January 2013 at 4.00 p.m. in Committee Room 6, Civic Offices, Swindon.