Tri-Borough Chairs of Governors Forum

Tri-Borough Chairs of Governors Forum 15th March 2017 at 6.00pm Lilla Husset Professional Centre, Hammersmith

Attendance:

Aslam Merchant Hallfield Primary/ Katy Whelan West London Free Federation of School Secondary Westminster Special Schools Dennis Charman Melcombe Primary Ike Offiah St Mary of the School Angels Primary School James Doheny Sir John Lillie Graham Beach Westminster Primary School Cathedral Primary School Evie Hambie St John’s Walham Carla Muñoz St Cuthbert with St Green CE Primary Slaughter Matthias Primary School School Simon Blanchflower Thomas Jones Gabrielle Joseph Barrow Hill Junior Primary School School Gwynneth Flower Our Lady of Amanda Sayers Sion Manning/ Park Victories Primary Walk Primary School School Jodie Terry Fox Primary School Sue Combe St Mary’s Catholic & Ashburnham Primary School, Primary School Masbro Rd Daisy Armstrong Avonmore Primary Sharon Robinson John Betts Primary School School Charlotte Vidal-Hall Brackenbury Lyn Meadows Soho Parish Primary School Primary School Deborah Jackson St Mary Magdalene Andrew Heffernan St Joseph’s Paddington Primay Catholic Primary School Maida Vale Terry O’Brien St Mary Magdalene Steve Maingot Our Lady of Paddington Primary Dolours Primary School. Elizabeth Uwalaka St John XXIII Catholic Primary School

In attendance:

Jackie Saddington (JS) Tri-Borough Head of Governor Services Richard Stanley (RS) Deputy Director of Education Lucy Nutt (LN) Principal Lead Adviser Nick Fuller (NF) Tri-Borough Libraries Children's Coordinator Grace Herbert (GH) Business Support Officer / Minute Taker 1. Welcome and Introductions JS welcomed all to the meeting and introduced GH to the Chairs of Governors.

2. Recruitment and Retention of Staff Initiatives – Lucy Nutt (LN) – Principle Lead Adviser LN introduced herself to the Chairs and addressed them regarding Recruitment and Retention.

All schools received a memory stick last summer term with the documents produced by the Recruitment and Retention (R&R) working party. This year the R&R working party are planning a school business managers’ conference to report back on their work.

Attached below is an updated version of the working with agencies document shown within the meeting. LN commented that although the LA cannot explicitly recommend an agency, using these questions with agencies may prevent expensive errors.

Working with supply agencies.docx

LN also commented on the notification of Statutory IR35 changes from 6th April 2017 and how these changes may affect schools/ academies. Any worker who continues to provide their service to a school/ academy through their own limited company will need to be assessed using a new IR35 tool to determine whether any payments made to the company from that date should be subject to the deduction of PAYE tax and national insurance. The new legislation makes it the statutory responsibility of the end user of the service (i.e. the school/academy) to assess the worker under the new IR35 rules, even if the worker is engaged via an agency. It is expected that HMRC will strictly enforce the new rules, with fines for organisations that incorrectly assess a worker.

This change has important implications for workers and for schools/ academies. Consequently, it is important that each education establishment understands its responsibilities for assessing workers before 6 April 2017 and the procedures that should be followed for any new ‘off-payroll’ workers to be hired in the future.

Finally LN commented that the NQT Service will once again be running the NQT pool which is free to schools that buy into the Enhanced NQT service and comes with a fee of £300 per appointment for schools that buy into the basic service.

Action: circulate Recruitment and Retention document to Chair of Governors.

Action: circulate the IR35 document to Chair of Governors which should be going out in school communications – consult with Dave Rogers regarding when document will be going out. 3. Auto-enrolment to libraries in primary schools – Nick Fuller (NF) - Libraries Children's Co-ordinator NF produced handouts for the attendees regarding the auto-enrolment to libraries for primary schools within the three boroughs. The scheme is to encourage all primary schools along with their pupils to use the resources which libraries have to offer.

The Library service has drafted a letter for schools to amend and send out to parents/ carers enabling them to opt out of the initiative.

Once the school has the names of those who do not wish to participate they will then send the relevant data on pupils to the Library Service using a secure email. The Library Service will then create membership cards for all those children who wish to register and distribute them either to the children in school or via a class visit to the library.

Attached below is the document with further details of this initiative.

Library Enrolement for Schools.pdf

4. Director’s Update by Richard Stanley (RS)

4.1SLA’s RS presented the new 2017/18 SLA document which has been circulated to schools within the weekly communication, referring to the new services schools can buy in to from the Local Authority. Each LA now has an individual SLA streamlined to offer the services available to schools in that borough such, as the Health and Safety SLA which is specific to each borough.

There are additional services which can be bought into this year including Early Help (EH) and Safeguarding. RS commented that the SLAs do not detract from the statutory core offer which is offered to all schools but instead allow schools to buy additional support in these areas as it is needed.

A governor asked if this meant that the schools that bought into the Safeguarding SLA would be more likely to have their service prioritised over those that did not as the Safeguarding service, which is good when delivered, seems stretched.

RS responded that this offer will not detract from the core service that all schools receive but will instead help to improve the service which is given by employing additional trainers through the SLA to help the schools that buy in.

A governor suggested that schools with teachers who are performing at a high level and who are trained in safeguarding could go to other schools to train the staff. This way. it reduces the time Hillary Shaw spends on providing the same training at individual schools and allows these teachers to gain more knowledge and expertise.

RS commented that the School Improvement SLA has reduced the core offer of two half day Lead Advisor visits to one half day visit. Schools can then utilise the SLA for additional visits.

JS commented that Chairs and Governors should look over the SLA documents and consider buying in to the School Improvement SLA as they will receive training and extra support including:

 Support in dealing with complex governing body issues.  A central programme of governor training  Membership of Modern Governor, giving access to over 45 on-line training modules.  Telephone and email support for clerks to governing bodies.  Training for independent clerks to governing bodies.

4.2 SEN The LA is currently in the process of reviewing the SEN provision in LBHF, RBKC and WCC and how the High Needs Funding block is used within all three boroughs; looking at the strengths and weaknesses and reviewing how it can be improved. After June schools will be made aware of the findings.

JS commented that schools will be kept up to date through Schools Forum.

4.3 School Organisation Strategy/ School Places The LA is currently in the process of creating the individual School Organisation Strategies for LBHF, RBKC and WCC.

In all three boroughs there is currently sufficient capacity within the Primary Sector but with the following surplus.

LBHF: 10% RBKC: 6-10% WCC: 15%

The national guideline for additional capacity is 5%. The LA is working with schools with high levels of surplus places to strategies in place to deal with this.

4.4 Funding The closing date for the National Funding Formula responses is 22nd March. Chairs were reminded to encourage individual responses from schools/ teachers/governors/parents.

ACTION – JS to send letters that were distributed to Headteachers to Chairs. 5 Governor Services Update by Jackie Saddington (JS) JS advised all of the next Schools Forum Dates:

LBHF: Tuesday 21st March 2pm at Lilla Huset. RBKC: Tuesday 28th March, 5pm at Kensington Town Hall. WCC: Monday 20th March, 4pm at Westminster City Hall.

JS also commented on the importance of the School Improvement SLA buy in due to the benefits for Governors and Governance which is covered in the service which includes:

 Support in dealing with complex governing body issues.  A central programme of governor training  Membership of Modern Governor, giving access to over 45 on-line training modules.  Telephone and email support for clerks to governing bodies.  Training for independent clerks to governing bodies. Governors were encouraged to look into the service and hold discussions within their meetings to see if this service would benefit them.

Regarding the governor training JS commented that Whole Governing Body training could be arranged and has proved to be effective in ensuring all governors are aware and up to date with their duties and what is expected of them.

ACTION – Chairs to contact JS if they would like to set up whole GB training.

5.1 Headteacher Recruitment JS advised the Chairs to first contact herself and RS to advise that the school is looking to hire a new Headteacher as the LA has a duty to supply the school with advice and options which they can take.

o Hold a Full Governor Body(FGB) Meeting to look at vision of the school and regard different ways to working e.g. Executive Headteacher, transforming into a Federation. o Have the SBM look at the schools 3 year budget data to help give you an idea of how you can fund employing a new Headteacher and/ or if you need to find a different way to do this. o Look at the different options an dyour budget o Look at the timeline – recruitment of a Headteacher can be hard/ o Create a selection panel of 3-8 peopleplus the LA Adviser. o Use an agency if you need to – look at your whole picture – what is right for your school may not be correct for another. o Advisers will help with the process of shortlisting with the applicants o The schools Lead advisor should help with interviews and give their advice and opinion – The Governors/ Governing Body ultimately make the decision.

Headteacher a-guide-to-recruitin recruitment - LA Assistance g-and-selecting-a-new-headteacher.pdf - Final - 22 March 2017.docx ACTION –JS to forward Chairs the guide to recruiting a new Headteacher. Chairs to contact JS if they have any questions regarding the Headteacher recruitment process.

5.2 Competency Framework for GovernanceEach table was asked to look at and discuss the Competency Framework for Governance document which had been placed on each, and feedback their thoughts to the others.

Feedback: o Document is too long – daunting o I have used it and have found it to be useful – Good for Governors and helps with meetings. o Too long and seems too complicated – not simple. o Not Statutory but best practice – Evolves over time o Hard to use efficiently o Haven’t used it personally but do not see how you can ignore it as the DfE has brought it out. o Seems to be good – you can pick out what is relevant to your schools and see how effective your committees are and can help with your self evaluation. o Would be better if it was in more of a tick box layout to help Governors/ Chairs to easily locate/ see what they are doing/ need to do to. o It could be a good idea to have someone who is compentant at using this framework and has experience to explain how this framework could better our own Governing Bodies and how to use effectively. o Govorners/ Governing Bodies not being given a chance to give input and guidance into this document makes it difficult for us to adapt and effectively use this framework.

Majority of the Chairs in attendance were not enthusiastic regarding the document.

JS commented that if Chairs felt as though it would benefit them, she could conduct some training on how to effectively use the framework.

ACTION –Chairs to give their feedback for this framework guidance to JS. JS to give training if there is a need to do so. Competency_frame work_for_governance_.pdf

6 Open Floor JS commented that the training schedule for next year would be released and sent out as soon as possible. ACTION –JS to forward Chairs the training schedule for next year as soon as it is finalised.

7 Ideas for future meetings Hillary Shaw to attend a future meeting and discuss issues arising/ questions with Chairs. ACTION –Chairs to forward JS with possible questions for Hilary Shaw and ideas for future meetings – who would they like to see attend?

8 Date of next meeting

Wednesday 24 May 2017 6.30pm – 8.30pm Kensington Town Hall

9 AOB There was no other business.

Meeting closed at 19:53.