Minutes:
Coral Miller, Principal Accountant, gave a verbal update on National Fair Funding, having attended a recent meeting where the DfE was represented. A further meeting on 10/02 with a London group and DfE would attend. Most schools in Slough were losing. The DfE intended to use a new primary / secondary ratio of 1-1.29; Slough’s was currently 1-1.33. John Constable advised that the 1: 1.29 figure was from the historical national average. The review commissioned by SBC and the Schools Forum and carried out by Tribal work fed into a national review. The results of that national review by LG Futures were inconclusive as it was considered difficult to ascertain cost per school. Secretary of State was interested in why some schools thrive on less money than others.
The DfE was asking Local Authorities to look at moving towards National Funding Formula for 18/19. They were looking at ways to fund Growth Fund with the possibility of lagged funding in the future. There was no update on de-delegation.
DfE was keen for lots of responses to Consultation which closed 22/03/17. The Government’s response was expected in August. The Schools Forum working meeting in March was to agree the response to the 5-16 and High Needs Consultations. Stage One had 6000 responses – there were 24,000 schools in the country. Schools Forum urged all Slough schools to respond individually.
Paul McAteer requested information about the impact in both phases, including on Key Stage 2 (KS2), as a result of the changes already made to the primary / secondary ratio in Slough. The Council to do some work on Key Stage 2 Primary; Jo Moxon advised it was difficult to measure year on year but could do some crude measures. It was noted that there would be an impact on both phases and that there had been redundancies in secondary schools.
It was agreed that the LA look at both phases and report back to the May Schools Forum meeting.
All to look at the Consultation before the March meeting.