Agenda item

George Grant explained that the report gave a final outturn in terms of funding and a service update of progress, priorities and plans for the future.

Vikram Hansrani, newly appointed permanent Head of SEND was introduced.

Progress was reported, having transferred SEND back to SBC the week before this meeting. The deadline was 31 March 2018 to have a permanent team in place.

Linda Calverley confirmed that as well as the High Needs Block Group, Task Groups would be created to focus on local provision and banding. It was requested that the Task Groups contain representation across all sectors, to include governors.

A meeting of the High Needs Block Group was scheduled to take place on Tuesday 17 October and would continue the ongoing scrutiny of all budget lines.

It was explained there had been challenges concerning the top up allocation and it was suggested this should be consolidated to be reviewed termly as day to day was not manageable. 

It was noted the expenditure line labelled ‘PFI contribution’ was still subject to clarification.

Helen Huntley queried why £17M had been quoted for income when there had previously been approximately £22M. George Grant requested that these queries be emailed to him before the end of the current week for response.

It was noted that part time places at KS4 were of concern.

It was asked that where there were intentions to expand and capital was available the impact on revenue be considered fully and funding clarified.

It was queried where the carry forward to 2017/18 of a £1.5M loss had come from as this figure was a great deal higher than previously predicted.  George Grant explained HNB updates had indicated there would be a significant overspend but the figure was higher than anticipated. That amount was to be investigated further and likely to be brought into balance over two years.

A  Schools Forum member endorsed the approach being taken to analyse the budget in detail at the HNB Group.

Cate Duffy added that the pressures faced by Slough were being experienced by other LAs, who also had significant overspends on HNB.  There had to be assurances that the funds were being spent in the most efficient way, that banding and the mix of provision was right.  There was a need to put an argument to central government about funding matching need but SBC did not yet have all the evidence necessary to support that. Cate Duffy indicated that she was minded to instruct officers not to seek any transfer from Schools Block to HNB but to take a pronged approach to balancing the budget. Further information was required about the NFF.

It was suggested it would be useful to note in the LHPA consultation that there were other pressures on the Schools Block. 

The HNB Group would discuss budget and other issues further.