Worcestershire Schools Forum (WSF) Agenda 6 July 2017
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Worcestershire Schools Forum (WSF) Agenda 6 July 2017 Worcestershire Schools Forum (WSF) Agenda 6 July 2017 2.00pm Kidderminster Room County Hall Worcester WR5 2NP Document Details: Status: V 0.1 Date: June 2017 Document Location: http://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/downloads/download/552/worcestershire_schools_forum_fra mework_downloads Contact: Andy McHale Contents Page | 1 www.worcestershire.gov.uk Worcestershire Schools Forum (WSF) Agenda 6 July 2017 Agenda Minutes of the Previous Meeting 18th May 2017 Agenda Item 5 Matters Arising - a) Mercury Project HR, Payroll and Finance Solutions Update b) Other Agenda Item 6 Any Other Business Schools Forum Association Agenda Item 7 Children Missing Education (CME) and Permanent Exclusions (PEx) Agenda Item 8 High Needs Commissioning Review Agenda Item 9 School Funding 2018-19 and NFF Updates a) DfE Policy Decisions Funding for 2018-19 Stage 2 Consultation b) Schools Block Consultation Issues 2018-19 Agenda Item 10 Maintained Schools Balances 2016-17 Agenda Item 11 DSG Outturn 2016-17 Agenda Item 12 Early Years Update - Provider Information 2017/18 Agenda Item 13 Academies Update Agenda Item 14 WSF Meeting Schedule Academic Year 2017/18 Date of Next Programmed Meeting Thursday 7 September 2017 at 2pm, Kidderminster Room, County Hall Page | 2 www.worcestershire.gov.uk MEETING OF THE WORCESTERSHIRE SCHOOLS FORUM (WSF) Thursday 6th July 2017 at 2.00pm Kidderminster Room, County Hall, Worcester A G E N D A 1. Apologies 2. Declaration of Interests 3. Declaration of Potential Conflict of Interests With Items on the Agenda 4. Minutes of the Last Meeting 18th May 2017 (attached) 5. Matters Arising a) Mercury Project HR, Payroll and Finance Solutions Update (discussion) (Sean Pearce Chief Financial Officer Worcestershire County Council and Liberata Representatives in attendance) b) Other Sue Alexander Head of Financial 6. Any Other Business Management Schools Forum Association Adults, Children, Families and Communiites 7. Children Missing Education (CME) and PO Box 73 Permanent Exclusions (PEx) (attached) County Hall Spetchley Road Worcester (Steve Larking Commissioning Manager WR5 2YA Education and Skills and Katie Clegg Babcock PLC in attendance) Tel 01905 846942 E-mail [email protected]. uk 8. High Needs Commissioning Review (attached) (Steve Larking Commissioning Manager Education and Skills in attendance) 9. School Funding 2018-19 and NFF Updates a) DfE Policy Decisions Funding for 2018-19 Stage 2 Consultation (attached) b) Schools Block Consultation Issues 2018-19 (discussion) 10. Maintained Schools Balances 2016-17 (attached) 11. DSG Outturn 2016-17 (attached) 12. Early Years (EY) Update – Provider Information 2017/18 (attached) 13. Academies Update (attached) 14. WSF Meeting Schedule Academic Year 2017/18 (attached) Date of Next Meeting: Thursday 7th September 2017 at 2pm Kidderminster Room, County Hall Please pass apologies to Andy McHale who can be contacted on Tel 01905 846285 or e-mail [email protected] MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE WORCESTERSHIRE SCHOOLS FORUM (WSF) Thursday 18th May 2017 Redditch Room, County Hall, Worcester The meeting started at 2.00 pm IN ATTENDANCE: WSF Members Clive Corbett (Chair) - HT Pershore High School Marie Pearse - HT Evesham Nursery School Deb Rattley - HT Chadsgrove Special School (Until 3.30pm) Jeff Robinson - Governor, Malvern Hills Alistair Thomas - Governor, Malvern Hills Peter Ingham - Governor, Wyre Forest Richard Taylor - Governor, Bromsgrove David McIntosh - Governor, Wyre Forest Tricia Wellings - PVI Sector Denise Phelps - PVI Sector Sean Devlin - Archdiocese of Birmingham Stephen Baker - Union Representative Michael Kitcatt - 16-19 Providers Local Authority (LA) Officers Sue Alexander - Head of Financial Management Adults, Children, Families and Communities Andy McHale - Service Manager Funding and Policy Children, Families and Communities Caroline Brand - Finance Manager Children, Families and Communities (Until 3.05pm) Peter Bishop - Director of Commercial and Change (For Agenda Item 5.1 until 3.15pm) Liberata Vijay Chandiramani - Chief Operating Officer Gerwyn Baker - Managing Director for Public Sector Services Sian Roberts - Contract Director (All for Agenda Item 5.1 until 3.15pm) Observer Councillor John Raine - Worcestershire County Council 1 1. APOLOGIES, ABSENCE AND WELCOME Malcolm Richards (Vice Chair) - Governor, Bromsgrove Lawrence Gittins - HT St. John's CE Primary School (Absent) Vivienne Cranton - HT Hollymount Primary School (Absent) Adrian Ward - HT Trinity High School Bryn Thomas - HT Wolverley CE Secondary School Stephen Garside - Vale of Evesham Special School John Bateman - Governor, Aspire Alternative Provision (AP) Free School Lorraine Petersen - Governor, Bromsgrove Val Houghton - Church of England Board of Education (Absent) The Chair welcomed Councillor John Raine to the WSF meeting as an observer. The Chair welcomed Peter Bishop, Vijay Chandiramani, Gerwyn Baker and Sian Roberts to the WSF meeting for Agenda Item 5.1. 2. DECLARATION OF INTERESTS None. 3. DECLARATION OF POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTERESTS WITH ITEMS ON THE AGENDA None. 4. MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING (2nd March 2017) 4.1 Under Item 1 David McIntosh incorrectly recorded as absent. 4.2 Minutes agreed with that amendment. 5. MATTERS ARISING 5.1 Mercury Project HR, Payroll and Finance Solutions (a) The Chair introduced the item summarising the issues as follows: - There is a lot of frustration in schools – the situation was made clear at the Budget consultation meeting on 30th January 2017. In particular the significant concerns regarding the timeframe have been ignored. Liberata HR services on the ground are not subject to criticism – the issue is with the leadership and project management. Liberata are in danger of losing customers in great numbers. There is the potential for every school to find an alternative supplier at the earliest opportunity. (c) Peter Bishop responded for WCC as follows: - Accept that concerns were not listened to effectively and apologised accordingly. Both WCC and Liberata are working hard to put in place a plan to recovery plan. The focus is on fixing it and doing and not giving excuses. Issues have gone to the highest profile people in both organisations as required. 2 (d) Gerwyn Baker made a presentation on the issues and agreed for it to be circulated to WSF and all HTs. The key aspects were: - Details on the current position – transactions completed, training issues, and communication. Improving the service – communications lead, focus to clear password queries, face to face training, service desk specialists, customer service focus and a new finance delivery lead. Addressing systems issues – purchase orders, localised payroll issues, supporting schools, proactive targeted and upload of budgets. Data safety – assurance on this, security and reporting of data breaches. Ensuring system is working for schools – response time and issue of new financial procedures manual. (e) Members of the WSF commented as follows: - On the current position: - Cannot make judgements on current transactions without comparing this to historic processing position. There are a lot of outstanding queries with over 600 unanswered e-mails. Schools have evidence of e-mails deleted without being read. Accepted that there have been an overwhelming number of queries over a sustained number of weeks but schools have not been able to get through on the phone line. Repeat queries – inaccurate information given by Liberata staff. Communication not helpful – certainly not to say how well it was working. On improving the service: - Lack of clarity on who in each school is receiving communications is it Heads and Office@? Need to add Schools Forum members to the distribution list and to talk to established school groups e.g. possibly a champion in each pyramid? Liberata need to be clear on timescales for fixing issues. No faith in on-line training and the webinars did not happen – people had signed up to them/waited for an hour and nothing happened. How long will it take to train schools face to face? On addressing systems, data safety and ensuring the system is working: - There have been serious data breaches in some schools e.g. absence information gone to IT lead, personal details circulated to other schools and invoices from one school gone to another school. Authorisation is coming through to Headteachers, when it needs to go to the School Business Manager. Although there are additional people to answer calls there is a need to have additional staff to resolve issues. On payroll – cannot authorise timesheets so have had to complete this on trust in order for staff to get paid. For outstanding travel claims from February the system will not let staff enter expenses. There an inadequate number of costs centres to account for pay transactions. On bank charges for individuals and effect on credit ratings who is going to be responsible for the cost of this? The project has been a disaster from beginning to end – should have had training/security/back up/process/parallel running, etc in place before the new system went live. The action plan being now proposed is far too late – it is no use to schools now. 3 There is a lot of personal cost to schools in terms of stress, long hours, overtime, etc – even the most experienced Business Managers feel under extreme pressure. Liberata have missed deadline after deadline – they need start underselling and over delivering. The current situation was avoidable