Agenda and minutes

Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting held on 9^th October 2012, be confirmed and signed as a correct record.

Further to minute 15 (page 3), Steve Haley (Head of Finance – Education and Innovation) apologised for the late distribution of the agenda papers, which was primarily due to the short time frame available to assess the implications for the Council following the Government announcement of Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) funding on 19^th December 2012.

Further to minute 15 (page 6), Mr Haley confirmed that he would seek further clarification on the question as to whether a fee was payable by the school when a student moved from a school to an alternative provision setting.

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 advised that based on information at the end of November 2012 an underspend of £1.5m was projected against the retained DSG Budget for the current year.  This was an improvement of £0.5m over the position at the end of August 2012 which was reported to the Forum in October.  Annex A to the report set out information on the changes.  In addition there was a balance of £0.33m brought forward from 2010/11 and 2011/12.  This gave an estimated total of £1.833m to be available for distribution via the local formula, although the exact value would not be known until May 2013. 

Members noted that in establishing a new formula in accordance with Department for Education (DfE) a number of schools would be detrimentally affected by the changes and would be eligible for Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG) payments.   It had previously been agreed that the underspend in the DSG, should be used as one-off funding in the next two years, 2013/14, and 2014/15, to help limit the cost of the Minimum Funding Guarantee.  The Forum confirmed this position, and noted that approximately £900k would be available in each year for this purpose.

Resolved – That the Schools Forum:

1)    Notes that based on information available at the end of November 2012, an in year underspend of approximately £1.5m is projected against the 2012/13 retained DSG budget.

2)    Notes that a total of £0.333m remains available from 2010/11 and 2011/12.

3)    Notes that the Local Authority is provisionally forecasting that a total of £1.833m will be carried forward at the end of the current financial year, and confirms that, as previously supported by School Forum, 50% of the available funding (£0.900m) be distributed to schools as part of the 2013/14 budget setting process and approximately £0.933m be redistributed in 2014/15.   

The Forum considered a report by Steve Haley (Head of Finance – Education and Education) seeking the Forum’s approval to the Locality Authority’s proposals for local formula and fundingissues for 2013/14.  The report also asked the Forum to consider proposals on how to allocate funding released from the retained budget to enhance delegated school funding, and to note the impact of these decisions on individual settings.

Mr Haley talked members through the report, commenting on key issues and answering questions on each section.  He highlighted the specific changes since the last report to the Forum in October and the decisions required by the Forum. The Forum considered each recommendation in turn and voted on each element of the funding formula and proposals. 

The Forum made decisions in respect on the following matters:

Estimated DSG Funding available in 2013/14 - It was noted that the total grant had increased from £140.8m in 2012/13 to £144.6m in 2013/14, but no inflationary increases had been provided, and paragraph 2.3 of the report showed a breakdown in the additional funding of £3.8m.  In addition approximately £5.4m of Pupil Premium funding was expected to be allocated across Swindon Schools and Academies in 2013/14.

Schools Block - Central Items – The Forum noted and supported the final 2013/14 budget for central items totalling £516,700.  An update would come to the March meeting on the practical arrangements for the new central funding of licences for schools, when clarification was received.

Schools Block – Pupil Growth – The Forum supported the revised 2013/14 budget of £577,600 for pupil growth.

De-delegation– The only services proposed to be subject to de-delegation funding in 2013/14 were for Free School Meals eligibility at £11,000 and Trade Union Duties release funding at £22,300.   At the initial consultation, both the primary and secondary Headteacher Associations (SAPH and SASH) had indicated that they would not support the continuation of central funding for trade union release time. The matter had been deferred from the October meeting to give the Unions time to advise on the benefits of the current arrangements, and Schools had received advice from the Local Authority’s HR Schools Advisor on the implications of withdrawing central funding.  The Forum received further feedback from the Headteacher Association representatives present.  Representatives of SAPH advised that they would support de-delegation continuing for a further year to give time for a longer term solution, but would not support an increase in fees to participating schools to cover the costs of other schools choosing not to buy the service.  Rachel Mattey and Julie Tridgell, representing the two remaining non-academy secondary schools, confirmed they also were concerned that there should not be an increase in costs to participating schools. Representatives of SASH Academies indicated that they would not want the de-delegation to continue for trade union release time.   Peter Smith (Trade Union representative) suggested that it would be more costly for individual schools to meet their legal obligations on time off for union representation if they did not  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

The next meeting is scheduled for 5^th March at 4 pm.

The next meeting was scheduled for 5^th March 2013 at 4 pm.