Agenda and minutes

The Forum is asked to approve as a correct record the minutes of the last meeting held on the 5 July 2018.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on Thursday 5 July 2018 were agreed as a correct record.

Carole Smith, Corporate Resources

The Forum received a report for information produced by the Department for Education (DfE) on the values and funding factors used by all other local authorities (LAs) in England. The report also provided a summary of work carried out on benchmarking Gateshead’s mainstream school’s formula against national data and regional and statistical neighbours for 2018/19 and the national funding formula (NFF).

The Forum were advised that the new model outlined within the report has been adopted by most local authorities.

The report provided the Forum with a summary of funding analysis for the following:

·         Benchmarking of funding factors

·         Basic per pupil entitlement

·         Current free school meals

·         Ever6FSM

·         Looked After Children

·         English as an additional language

·         Mobility

·         Overall Pupil-Led Factors

RESOLVED:

(i)            The Forum noted the contents of the report.

Carole Smith, Corporate Resources

The Forum received the report to update on the information the Department for Education (DfE) published in July and September 2018 providing details on the Schools Block, Central Schools Services Block and High Needs Block of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG). It was also noted that the DfE have also published the teacher’s pay grant methodology with school level allocations to be published later in the year.

An overview of the main DSG announcements was provided from the report. It was highlighted that the secondary low prior attainment factor will have specific weighting applied for year’s 7, 8 and 9 due to Key Stage 2 standards. It was also noted that local authorities will continue to manage their growth funding locally using the DfE approved process but that it is unknown how much growth funding each local authority will receive.

The Forum were provided with a summary of illustrative Gateshead funding from the report and were advised that not all details or calculations have been released and the information within the report was based on 2017/18 data (excluding premises and growth factors using 2018/19 APT).

An update on the Teachers Pay Grant was provided. It was noted that the DfE will allocate funding to schools based on an amount per pupil weighted for the different sectors. A comment was made that the increase in teachers pay contributions will have a large impact on schools.

RESOLVED:

(i)            The Forum noted the contents of the report.

Carole Smith, Corporate Resources

The Forum received a report to update on the first meeting of the Mainstream School Funding Review Group, sub group of Schools Forum for 2019/20 mainstream school budgets.

It was highlighted that the funding aims propose to phase the changes required over the next two funding periods (2019/20 and 2020/21). A discussion took place on the impact on staffing as a result of the reviews noting that a variety of factors could influence the future of the review including increases in the national living wage.

Further detail of Phase 2 and Phase 3 funding factors was provided within the appendix of the report.

RESOLVED:

(i)            The Forum approved the funding aims and principles to be used for the calculation of 2019/20 mainstream school budgets with the extended timeframe to 2020/21 and the use of the new phase 2 funding factors as a starting point for the calculation of mainstream school budgets for 2019/20.

Carole Smith, Corporate Resources

The Board received the report to provide an update on the outcome of the Early Years Inclusion Fund consultation.

A summary of the proposed changes that were consulted on was provided from the report. These were:

·         Extending the inclusion fund entitlement to all 2-year olds accessing provision

·         Increasing the maximum award per single child from £200 to £500

·         Increasing the maximum award for a group of children from £500 to £1,000

·         The application form must be fully costed with evidence of costs e.g. the cost of a course or piece of equipment

The Board were advised that responses from the consultation that ran from 5 to 20 July 2018 were largely positive. It was suggested within the report that due to this result changes to the Inclusion Fund have been implemented and included in the new Provider Agreement sent out to all settings in time for the autumn term (as agreed in July’s Schools Forum).

RESOLVED:

(i)            The Forum noted the contents of the report and requested retrospective approval for the changes to the Inclusion Fund.

The Forum were provided with the opportunity to discuss how best to communicate the funding issues facing schools to parents. The overall consensus of those present was that the letter should be short, simple and honest about the problem.

It was agreed that a draft letter would be sent to members of the Forum for feedback.

1 November 2018 at 2:00pm.