Minutes of Hampshire Schools Forum

Minutes of Hampshire Schools Forum

Date / 8 July 2008
Time / 09:30-12:30
Location / Falcon House, Winchester
Present / Sylvia Vine – Chair (HGA Sec), Elizabeth Anson (HGA Pri), Julie Churcher (SHC), Jim Duckham (HGA Sec), Gren Earney (SHC), Hilary Evans (PHC), John Gawthorpe (TLP), Robin Gray (HGA Sec), Jim Hobbs (HGA Pri), Martina Humber (HGA Pri), Phil Johnson (Sp HC), Esther Jones (PHC), John Mason (HGA Sec), Val Morgan (PHC), Wendy Morrish (SHC), Janet Roberts (Diocesan), Mike Salt (HGA Pri), Steve Shepherd (PHC), Rob Thompson (SpHC), Andrew Turk (HGA Sec), Phillip Walker (LSC), David White (TLP), Sue Wilkes (EYDCP), Chris Willsher (SHC), Sally Willshire (PHC)
Also present /

Sarah Pook, Chris Robinson, Pam Robinson Gordon Shinn, Gill Shillitoe,Thomas Whiffen, Anne Melesk

For Item 4 – Anthea Bastow
Apologies / Mark Bramwell (14-19 rep), John Clarke (HCC), Margaret Cooper (HGA Pri), John Coughlan (HCC), Eric Harrison (HGA Pri), Eddie Izzard (PHC), Tim Jackson (14-19 rep), Ian Johnson (SHC), Cllr David Kirk (HCC), Chris Laskey (EYDCP), Felicity Roe (HCC), Amanda Rowley (SHC), Grahame Sammons (SHC), Deborah Saxby (HGA Sp), Terry Tillman (HGA Pri), Antony Wells (HGA Sp)

1

Action

The Chairman welcomed all those present, and especially Phillip Walker who was attending his first meeting as representative of the LSC. Apologies for absence were noted.
The Clerk to Forum read a letter from Eddie Izzard, sending his thanks and best wishes to Forum members. Eddie had been due to Chair the meeting; the last before his current term of office ended. Thomas would write to Eddie on behalf of Hampshire Schools Forum thanking him for his services, both as a Forum member and as Chairman. /
Thomas Whiffen
1 / Minutes from last meeting – 16 May 2008
The Minutes of the meeting held on 16 May were agreed, with the correction of Roberts for Rogers in Minute 4.
2 / Matters Arising
a)14-19 Diplomas and transport (Min. 2c)
Thomas reported on the Government announcement of a £23M grant to be made available to Local Authorities in rural areas for the appointment of a transport coordinator. Hampshire would be a part of that funding and Thomas would bring further details to the next meeting. Forum members expressed some regret that the grant would not deliver particular transport services.
b)Contracts affecting schools (Min. 3)
Thomas committed to circulate any information he may receive on the possibility of purchasing mini-buses through CountySupplies.
c)Government consultation on machinery of government changes affecting the funding of pupils aged 14 – 19 (Min. 5)
Thomas said that although the suggestion to circulate a diagram on funding streams had been a helpful one initially, in the end it had not provided any extra clarity to what was already known.
d) Amendments to Schools Forum constitution – non-School members (Min. 7)
Thomas advised that the 14-19 Partnership had nominated Tim Jackson, Principal of Sparsholt College, and Mark Bramwell, Principal of Totton College, as its representative and alternate. The Early Years Partnership would confirm its nominees post their meeting tomorrow. A full complement of 38 Members was therefore expected by the October meeting, when a new Chair and Vice-Chair of Forum would be appointed.
Thomas reminded everybody that suitable venues were being sought for Forum meetings and ideas were welcomed. SparsholtCollege and the Stripe Theatre at WinchesterUniversity were suggested and would be investigated. (NB: Saxony Hall in the Wessex Centre, SparsholtCollege, has subsequently been booked for the February 2009 meeting).
e)Standards Fund for Key Stage 2 Music and Music Service update (Min. 8)
Dame Elizabeth Anson confirmed that Jill Larner from Hampshire Music Service had satisfactorily dealt with her queries around access to music education for her school. /
Thomas Whiffen
Thomas Whiffen
Anne Melesk
3 / Schools Balances Clawback and redistribution
Sarah Pook tabled a confidential paper giving outcomes from the Appeals Panel on clawback of school balances. Seven of the nine schools proposed for clawback had appealed. The Appeals Panel had considered each case on an individual basis and one appeal had been upheld.
Schools Forum were asked to endorse the decisions of the Appeals Panel. Forum would be responsible for re-investment decisions on those funds clawed back and they would be returned to the schools budget to target areas of low attainment.
Lengthy discussion followed. Elizabeth Anson said she would remain consistently opposed to the principle of interfering with the financial management of schools through clawback on school balances. John Gawthorpe said he strongly opposed that view as it was negligent on the part of those responsible for financial management to have £3M+ funds uninvested. Such cases raised the issue of removal of delegation from the governing body. A vote to endorse the decisions of the Appeals Panel was taken and approved, with 23 in favour, 1 against and 0 abstentions.
Sarah then took the meeting through other key points of the report on School Balances clawback and redistribution. She noted the additional reports that would be brought to Forum for consideration in due course. Some guidance from DCSF would be sought on the treatment of revenue held for capital purposes given the current unhappiness about balances incurred through delayed capital project spend.
Sarah explained about the mechanism process for clawback. She said that if the current mechanism failed to reduce the upward trend on outstanding balances, Forum would need to rethink its future approach and consider how to more effectively change behaviours in this area. To that end, Sarah invited Forum to consider funding a one year consultancy post to work within EFS on the Forum’s behalf and to operate a dedicated project on the future approach to clawback.
There was discussion around this proposal, but Forum were of the general view that any monies would be better invested in front line services. They voted unanimously to reject the proposal to fund a project post.
Forum debated at length how to improve financial management through whole scale targeting of groups rather than through an intensive look at individual schools. Sarah agreed to work on statistical information that could be shared at area meetings. Robin Gray said that Governors needed to be made more aware of the issues and to get it onto their local forum agendas.
John Gawthorpe suggested that there was an exceptional communication from Schools Forum to all headteachers, school governors and financial managers that clearly explained the clawback approach and what action schools needed to take. This idea was developed and it was agreed that Thomas Whiffen would draft an appropriate form of wording in consultation with Forum members. The communication to be issued ahead of the school budget revisions round, due in late September/early October 2008.
Outstanding recommendations were addressed as follows:
Forum voted in support of proposals to strengthen the Scheme for Financial Management (SfFM) with 23 in favour, 1 against and 0 abstentions.
The proposal for clawback funds to be carried forward to 2009/10 for distribution on the basis of the existing low attainment indicators was approved with 22 in favour, 2 abstentions and 0 against. / Sarah Pook
Thomas Whiffen
4 / Funding Equal Pay Claims in schools
Sarah Pook tabled a paper which gave guidance on back-pay for Education staff, and which was referenced as an appendix to the main report from herself and Anthea Bastow. Sarah noted that significant claims were estimated and would have to be paid out of the schools’ delegated budgets. It would therefore be important for Forum to consider how to fund these locally.
Sarah highlighted the high level funding options for dealing with equal pay claims as they come forward, and the three possible funding routes set out in the report. She noted that it was expected to be able to meet the cost of equal pay claims up front in 2009/10. Claims would become a revenue budget issue for 2010/11 and regular updates on progress would come to Forum.
Anthea Bastow outlined the current position on the equal pay claims going through the tribunal process and there was discussion on some of the issues. She warned that it would be some time before a final position was reached.
Recommendations were noted and agreed. /
Sarah Pook
5 / Outturn 2007/08 and arising 2008/09 issues
Gordon Shinn reported on the Schools Budget position, and set out the key variations since the last report. A total underspend of £2,063M in schools and non-school budgets was noted.
The overall DSG summary was noted, and Gordon talked through the proposed use of funds from the DSG underspend. He noted that an adjustment was required to the balance from 2008/09 proposed for carry forward, bringing it up to £2.386m.
Recommendations were noted. The allocation of the carry forward DSG to the commitments identified in paragraph 3.3 was agreed by vote, with 23 in favour, 0 against and with 1 abstention. There was unanimous agreement that the rest of the DSG should be carried forward to 2009/10. / Gordon Shinn
6 / HampshireSchool Funding formula issues
a) / The approach to one Early Years Formula:
Thomas Whiffen reported on the approach to the early years formula. He explained that Chris Robinson, Gill Shillitoe and himself had discussed the matter with a group of interested parties, including primary and nursery school representatives. As a result of those discussions further work would take place over the summer with the Primary Resources Group and a way forward for achieving the implementation date of April 2009 for the single pupil count method would be proposed to the October Forum.
The proposal to move to an overall single formula was noted. Chris Robinson talked through key issues to be considered by the Partnership Advisory Group. Chris stressed the formula should be as simple and clear as possible and she set out the basis for achieving it. The emphasis would be around achieving outcomes and this meant that there would be additional financial rewards to those establishments offering greater flexibility and quality of service. The Local Authority would be responsible for measuring these factors and for ensuring a provision of service right across Hampshire.
Questions and discussion followed. Sally Willshire and Chris would discuss offline those areas where Sally could offer assistance.
Recommendations were noted and agreed. Rob Thompson clarified that the formula would not apply to nursery school children at special schools. Therefore, Forum agreed Rob’s suggestion for a third recommendation that cost and hours of entitlement for special school provision should be looked at separately. Thomas to provide an appropriate form of wording for the recommendation.
Post meeting note: Suggested text is “ Schools Forum is recommended to support an examination of the implications and costs for special schools and resourced provision (special units) of the move from 12.5 to 15 hours free entitlement for under fives, with the results of this study being reported to it at a future meeting.” /
Thomas Whiffen
Sally Willshire/ Chris Robinson
Thomas Whiffen
b) / Floor areas and major projects:
Gill Shillitoe briefly outlined the specific issues related to the funding provision for schools which was determined by floor area sizes. She noted a proposed change in that funding to reflect the impact on it of major capital projects. Schools Forum agreed the recommendations.
7 / DSG Formula Review
Sarah Pook presented the report. She noted that the review had identified a definite interest in funding incentives and proposed that the Forum kept a watching brief. Sarah also recommended that Forum alerted DCSF to those areas of discussion where they were interested in giving input.
Questions and comments followed. Wendy Morrish noted the importance of factoring in that outcomes for challenging children wouldn’t be the same as for others. Without that stipulation she said there was a risk that taking on challenging children became a disincentive.
Recommendations were noted. The Chairman asked for any further comments to be emailed direct to Sarah Pook at mailto:. / All Forum members
8 / Forum meeting dates to end of academic year 2009/10
Thomas presented a recommended programme of School Forum meetings to end of academic year 2009/10. These dates were in line with the cycle of business requirements.
A change to the proposed meeting date for May was agreed. With the exception of that meeting, Forum otherwise expressed a preference for meetings to be held in the morning. The full list of dates is below.
9 / Any Other Business
There was none.
10 / Dates of Future Meetings
Next meeting: Tuesday 14 October, 0930-1230, Falcon House, Winchester.
Please see table below for full list of planned meetings, and visit the website at
Date / Time / Location
14 October 2008 / 09:30-12:30 / Falcon House
11 December 2008 / 09:30-12:30 / Falcon House
13 February 2009 / 09:30-12:30 / Saxony Hall (Wessex Centre, SparsholtCollege)
19 May 2009 / 14:00-17:00 / Main Auditorium,Stanmore Lane Conference Centre
10 July 2009 / 09:30-12:30 / Falcon House
20 October 2009 / 09:30-12:30 / tbc
11 Dec. 2009 / 09:30-12:30 / tbc
22 January 2010 / tbc / tbc
2 March 2010 / tbc / tbc
21 May 2010 / tbc / tbc
13 July 2010 / tbc / tbc

1