Hampshire Schools Forum

Date / 15 December 2016
Time / 14:00 – 16.00
Location / Winchester Racquets and Fitness, Bereweeke Road, Winchester SO21 2NF
Present / Nursery / Peter Higgs
Primary / Andrew Turk, Ella Palmer, Esther Jones, Shirley Nellthorpe, Andy King, Amy Mossop
Secondary / Sylvia Vine, Amanda Rowley, Ria Allen, Robin Gray, Simon Walker,
Special / Rob Thompson, Keith Norman
Education Centres
Academy / Steve Jones, Kathryn Marshall
EY / Jane Dyke, Sarah Rolls, Kimberley Norris
TLP / Liz Muir, Faye Mylward
Post 16 / Stephen Carville
Also Present
Observers / Cllr Peter Edgar, Felicity Roe, Andrew Minall, Kathryn Stevens, Emma McDermid, Simon Francis, Steve Crocker, Helen Hardy (Clerk)
Apologies / Nursery
Primary / Ian Waine, Martina Humber, Shirley Nellthorpe, Paul Street, Charlotte Bailey
Secondary
Academy / Bayhan Ercan-Razvi, David Pover
Special / Anna Dawson
Other members / Dominic Coburn
Officers / Brian Pope, Stuart Ashley
Elected Members / Cllr Mans
Action
1 / Welcome and Apologies
The Chair welcomed all members to the meeting. The Chair recorded thanks to Jim Duckham, Julie Turvey and Chris Willsher for their work on Schools Forum. Apologies were noted and agreed as above.
2 / Declaration of Interests
Cllr Edgar declared that he is a life member of the NAHT. Sarah Rolls declared an interest in item 4 as she works for the commissioned service (Prospects) whose budget is being discussed. Liz Muir and Faye Mylward declared an interest in item 7.
3 / Minutes of 19 October 2016
The minutes of 19 October 2016 were accepted as an accurate record.
4 / Services for Young Children – Early Years Advisory Service (EYAS)

Hampshire has a PVI sector model for early years and therefore provides QTS support for their development and improvement. In Hampshire there are 1,400 childminders (700 providing early years education), 650 PVI providers and 350 schools with year R pupils. They are also discussing joint working with Teaching Schools and considering peer to peer support. EYAS currently do all the inspection and moderation work in year R so this will need to be taken into consideration as if the service is disbanded then HIAS would need to take this up.

What decisions does Schools Forum need to take today? Schools Forum should consider whether it wants the service to continue and then officers will look at how it can be funded.
Representatives from primary and secondary headteachers at Resources Committee, governors and special schools were all supportive of the service for both the services provided in the early years and for the longer term benefits felt in the education sector.
Funding is currently in place temporarily through reserves but making funding ongoing does depend on how much can be met by the centrally held element of the early years block and if this is enough to cover the preferred option C. Simon Francis stated that an early decision from the Forum is better in terms of staff retention and morale. Schools Forum members felt that a decision to fund the service on a permanent footing is preferable for providing stability; in addition recruiting staff later costs significant money as does the cost of supporting children later in their education.
What is the detail of reducing the commissioned service? The contract is up for renewal on 31 March 2017. In the short-term, there are some things that could be brought in house, others that would continue to be provided and other services that are “non-essential” and could be taken out. There would be a need to develop new structures to support childminders who are widely dispersed across the county.
EY representatives expressed concern from providers around the reduction in service in conjunction with the other changes that are coming in. They would be grateful for as much support as possible for this period.
What pressure will it put on the budget if it becomes a permanent service? Funding will need to come from central element of EY block but there are constraints on what can be funded centrally. To keep within the 5% cap, officers would need to seek savings from other centrally funded services.

Schools Forum agreed to continue funding the EYAS and education support from DSG reserves for a further year (until March 2018). The next year will be spent refining the service and seeking and achieving savings in other areas of early years central spend.

Schools Forum agreed to part fund the service from the early years block (following savings made) and part from an SLA according to the staffing model outlined in option C from April 2018 with a further decision to be taken in January 2017 and the contract for childminders to be extended for an additional year (2017/18) at a reduced cost of £250,000 (39% saving).

5 / Second Stage Consultation – Schools and High Needs (additional paper)
The DfE has published it’s response to the consultation on the national funding formula. The hard national funding formula will be introduced from 2019/20 with a transitional year in 2018/19. The impact on Hampshire will be a shift in overall funding from per pupil funding and school led. There are changes in deprivation funding – measure being changed to a hybrid of FSM and IDACI; reduction of lump sum to £110,000. There will be a degree of protection for small schools through the sparsity factor but this will not help a large number of Hampshire schools with less than 150 on roll.
With regard to resourced provision (paragraph 8.3) is the £6,000 instead of £10,000? Yes, it does but in theory it will be covered by the schools mainstream funding. For primary schools this is likely to have a negative impact because the typical pupil does not receive the full £4,000 funding.
What are the deprivation and IDACI changes? The type of children picked up by IDACI is quite different from those picked up by FSM. With pupil premium picking up FSM children, Hampshire felt that using IDACI would cover both areas. Rural poverty is better picked up by FSM than IDACI. There will be a significant shift in Hampshire based on this shift to FSM.
Hypothetically, if Hampshire changed to FSM from IDACI, would this maintain more money for schools? Currently the pot of money available will be the same, it’s just how it’s split that can be decided. Following the introduction of the national funding formula, there will be national redistribution of funding. The overall impact on individual Hampshire schools is typically 1 -2 % either way.
In primary schools, the introduction of Universal Infant FSM has led to a huge reduction in the sign-up for FSM and therefore the additional funding this attracts. FSM does not pick up all aspects of deprivation that IDACI does, such as families receiving working tax credits. It will be critical that schools get as many of those eligible people to sign up for FSM as possible. The stigma remains for many families to sign up for this information. The DWP has this information; if they could share this with the DfE it would help schools. Lobbying MPs on this point could help to put pressure on the DWP.
The lump sum reduction will mainly hit hardest on schools with a low number on roll as there will be limited scope to recoup funding through pupil led factors.
What is Ever 6 FSM? FSM is if you are eligible now, Ever 6 is for those who have been eligible for FSM at any point in the last 6 years.
What about special schools? Proposals are broadly the same as per the first stage consultation. The mechanism for funding will remain unchanged. Officers are seeking principles on the appropriate level of spend for each blocks but there is a recognition of the pressures on the high needs block. For the schools element, the DfE have looked at potential for shifting money between blocks to encourage inclusion. Is there the option of retaining LA discretion on how pupils in special schools are funded? There are a few references to LAs finding new ways of working however Place Plus will remain with LAs the commissioner.
Schools Forum noted the initial high level summary of the consultation and the impact on Hampshire.
6 / Split Site Funding
This is the first stage of a review of split site funding and looked at the current position in Hampshire and comparison with neighbouring authorities.
With option C, can the growing schools budget also support these schools if Hampshire wants them to increase their capacity? There is some provision, and one does not preclude the other. Those schools which do grow, wouldn’t receive less split site funding. Most new split sites are due to amalgamations but they will lose lump sum funding so this is a contribution back to them to recognise the additional costs incurred.
Is the policy worthwhile for only 5 schools for a pot of £100,000? Currently schools get a sum of £50k which can offset some of the lump sum reduction. It is worth it for those schools as it offsets additional costs incurred. It also features in the national funding formula therefore it is worth retaining.
What about the data in appendix 2? Officers recommended that this should be read with care as this was an unmoderated view of the costs individual schools felt they incurred as a result of operating over a split site.
Can these points be worked into the updated policy to build in more protection for those where it is a strategic priority from the LA? Yes it can be updated although they are covered already to some extent.
How many more schools are there likely to be in the future? It will not be a huge increase anytime soon but it needs to be recognised as it is still a significant additional cost for those schools.
If the impact of the lump sum reduction on small schools is as big as it could be, then this might become a bigger issue within Hampshire. Any decision is likely to be short-term and will be reviewed when full details of national funding formula are published.
Schools Forum approved option C, based on the reasons detailed in the paper. Values will be proposed at the next meeting, along with modelling showing the impact on individual schools in receipt of split site funding, as part of School Forums decision making process on spending budget priorities for 2017/18.
7 / Budget Update

Business rates have had their 5 yearly update and it is likely that these will increase by £1m initially for Hampshire schools and this will need to be taken into account for next year’s budget setting.

Early Years National Funding Formula – the quality supplement is now allowed although based solely on staff qualifications (currently funded by a combination of Ofsted rating and staff qualification in Hampshire) which will be welcomed in Hampshire. There will be additional funding for providers for children with additional needs as part of Disability Access Fund. The Hampshire consultation will be issued next week and will be on those changes that have to be made next year as set out in paragraph 5.8. Maintained nurseries have been granted an additional year of protection.

Schools Forum noted the forecast 2016/17 budget position, based on figures as at October 2016.

Schools Forum noted the information provided in sections 3 – 6 regarding the 2017/18 budget.

8 / Hampshire Funding Consultation Response
Officers received helpful and constructive feedback from the November consultation with schools to give broad principles for modelling when budget allocations have been analysed. The responses were gratefully received by officers as they were all helpful and supportive of the broader picture.
Data sets - how and when will we alert HTs and governors to the impact of the new funding formula so that they can start to work towards it? There will be some broad headlines in mid-January to inform Schools Forum and school budget shares will be available mid-February. Messages around the national funding formula can be shared at this point. The DfE “ready reckoner” is as good as it gets right now but until February/March when the budget shares are available to schools, there is no more detail to go out. It would be helpful to know in January if headteachers and governors feel a guildhall style briefing would be helpful if there is information available. Will EPS be brought into these discussions as there will be an impact on staffing? Yes, officers will make sure that they are prepared and involved.
Budgets funded from DSG reserves – Felicity Roe provided an update on the SEN top-up funding. So far there have been 125 applications averaging around £6k and there has been a reduction in requests for EHCPs. Work is ongoing to analyse this, but it appears at this stage to be working. HTs requested that this scheme is re-published to schools and also that there is greater clarity about how schools apply for it. Governors and headteachers were asked to share this with their colleagues and to check SchoolsComms.
Education Services Grant – this has been challenging to interpret. From September 2017, LA will receive small grant to cover statutory interventions. Members sought further information on: statutory list referred to under retained duties; education welfare; national curriculum assessment (listed as “moderating KS1 teacher assessment). There is a concern from schools that they are doubling up with LA provided services and if clarity is provided on the LA’s statutory duties, then this would reassure schools about cuts to their own budgets. Is the MAT top-slicing a fair comparison? It may well include SLAs so it may not be entirely fair, however they will probably add a further 1% to cover the general ESG reduction. Why have Music Services been included? This is because of updated guidance from the DfE.