Ealing Schools Forum Membership
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Ealing Borough Council Democratic Services Officer: Town Hall Cornelia Harding New Broadway Direct Line: 020 8825 7380 London W5 2BY Email:[email protected] Ealing Schools Forum Venue:Elizabeth Cantell Room, Town Hall, New Broadway, Ealing W5 2BY Date and Time: Wednesday, 16 January 2019 at 18:15 (Additional 5:15pm pre-meeting for Members) AGENDA Open to Public and Press 1 Apologies for Absence 2 Urgent Matters 3 Matters to be Considered in Private 4 Declarations of Interest Page 1 of 54 5 Minutes Draft Ealing School Forum Minutes_7 November 2018 3 - 10 6 Matters Arising from the Minutes. 7 MEMBERSHIP Schools Forum Membership December 2018 11 - 12 8 School Funding 2019-20 (Jan 2019) 13 - 54 9 Date of Next Meeting Paul Najsarek, Chief Executive, 8th January 2019. NOTE: In the event of an emergency your attention is drawn to the evacuation instructions displayed on the wall by the entrance to the Committee Room. First Aid advice can also be found here. Page 2 of 54 Ealing Schools Forum Thursday 7th November 2018 at 6:15pm Council Chamber, Ealing Town Hall PRESENT: Members: Special Schools: Paul Adair, Ian Buchanan Nursery Schools: Beverley Kellett Primary Schools: Margaret Majumdar (Chair), Belinda Ewart, Jamie Maloy, Dave Woods, Marilyn Borlase, Clare Rees, Sue Stanley and Kathleen Coll. High Schools: Arwel Jones, Eliot Wong, Aruna Sharma and Rachel Kruger. Pupil Referral Unit: Jon Hicks Academies: Róisín Walsh Representative of Teaching Staff: Stefan Simms VA and Faith Ethos Academy/Free School Providers: Vacant Non-Executive Members of Council: Councillors Driscoll and Millican *Please note attendance is based on those that have signed the attendance sheet. Also Present: Judith Finlay (Executive Director, Children, Adults and Public Health), Gary Redhead (Assistant Director, Schools Planning & Resources), Tamara Quinn (Strategic Lead, Planning and Resources), Geraldine Chadwick (Interim Senior Finance Business Advisor, Children and Schools), Julie Lewis (Director, Learning Standards and School Partnerships) and Cornelia Harding (Democratic Services Officer). 1. Appointment of Chair Margaret Majumdar was nominated and seconded to act as the Chair for this meeting and for the rest of the municipal year. She accepted and agreed to chair meetings of the Ealing Schools Forum for the municipal year. 2. Apologies for Absence Apologies for absence had been received in advance of the meeting from the following: Academies: Harinder Rana PVI Nursery Provider: Clare Porter Non-Executive Members of Council: Councillor Lusuardi 1 Page 3 of 54 Absent: Primary Schools: Bill Griffiths and Rachel Martin Academies: John Goddard Vacant positions: Representative of Non-Maintained SEN Providers x 1 VA and Faith Ethos Academy/Free School Providers x 1 16 – 19 partnership x 1 – Please see under membership 3. Urgent Matters There were none. 4. Matters to be Considered in Private There were none. 5. Declarations of Interest There were none. 6. Minutes RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting of the Ealing Schools Forum held on Thursday 5th July 2018 be approved as a true and correct record. 7. Matters Arising from the Minutes (not appearing on the agenda) School Balances A member suggested that it might be helpful to have information on how different schools had accrued their balances to show the difference between schools with short-term and those with long-term balances. Geraldine Chadwick (Interim Senior Finance Business Advisor, Children and Schools) advised that the London Borough of Ealing finance officers were currently analysing balances over a three-year period and would report back to the Schools Forum at a future meeting. 8. Membership The Assistant Director, Schools Planning & Resources, Gary Redhead, welcomed new members to the Ealing Schools Forum and informed members that in addition to the two vacancies noted in the agenda papers, there was also now a vacancy for a representative in the 16 – 19 Partnership (x 1) category. 2 Page 4 of 54 9. School Funding 2019-20 Gary Redhead presented his report and asked the forum for their views and suggestions on how schools funding should be allocated following the announcement from the Department for Education anticipated for January 2019. He wanted to garner Forum Members’ views on how funds should be split among primary schools, high schools and the High Needs Block. Gary and Tamara Quinn spoke about the 5 scenarios that had been presented in the report and illustrated in Appendix 2. Gary said he and his team were attracted to scenario 4 – Funding Floor Factor, Free School Meals (FSM) raised to National Funding Formula (NFF), Prior Attainment (PA) increased (still below NFF value), Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG) not applicable. Gary stated that Scenario 1 [FSM and PA raised to NFF level + 0.5% MFG] was what had been used in the current year. He put it to the members that the most realistic choice was between scenarios 1 and 4. The meeting noted that some schools have had a high level of funding for a long time while other schools had been under-funded for a long time. A member asked why scenario 4 was preferred. Gary explained that under scenario 1, all primary and high schools would get a 0.5% uplift from the minimum funding guarantee (MFG). Under scenario 4, the Funding Floor factor meant that schools’ funding would increase over the 2017/2018 baseline by at least a 1% uplift. This would free resources to allow more funding to schools further away from the NFF. Gary went on to say that scenario 4 was the [likely] priority for the Authority; if this was not possible, they would resort to scenario 1. If finances did not allow for either of these two options, scenario 2 would then be considered. The members stated they would have liked to have been presented with a scenario of what the impact of the National Funding Formula (NFF) would be if it was fully implemented. They felt it would be useful to identify for example, what is the most a school could gain or lose under the NFF. Officers responded that under the NFF, all schools gain 1% compared to their 2017/2018 baseline. This was a cash sum, in the per pupil unit. Thus, schools will lose if their pupil numbers decrease. Officers also explained that as maintained schools were moving from a locally determined formula to a national one, the Government has put in place certain measures to mitigate the reductions some schools are likely to face. Officers referred to examples of factors noted in the report such as Free School Meals and Prior Attainment, which would need to be increased in Ealing in order to move closer to the National Funding Formula. Officers clarified that some schools due to gain under scenario 4 are currently in deficit, therefore, what appears to be a big increase is not so in reality. Officers 3 Page 5 of 54 acceded to members’ request to provide figures modelling NFF compared with scenarios 1 and 4 using existing datasets. Growth Fund For 2019-20, the DfE will introduce a nationally determined growth fund based on lagged pupil number growth. Gary informed the meeting that although they had not been given an estimate by the DfE, modelling suggests this new system will reduce LBE’s funding by £1.2million [from £3.702m to £2.504m). The grant is still likely to be sufficient to fund existing growth fund rules, as spending is forecast to reduce. If this were not the case, he proposed that there were two options following publication of the final allocations in January 2019: either to take a top-slice off the national funding formula from all maintained schools or scale back spending. A member expressed the view that the current levels of spending should be maintained i.e. the top-slice should increase to make up any shortfalls in funding based on existing growth fund rules. Another member suggested the fund should increase and highlighted that the growth fund only covers the Age Weighted Pupil Unit and not the other formula factors such as Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) or other grants such as pupil premium grant. De-delegation Additional School Improvement Services – The discussion centred on the funding for the Ealing Learning Partnership (ELP). Gary advised that the Forum should find a way to either increase subscription or reduce activity on the EGfL website, to counter the effect of non-subscribing schools accessing ELP services through the EGfL website. There were overhead costs associated with the EGfL and the system was not yet flexible enough to password protect much of the site. It was confirmed at the meeting that high schools did access some services through EGfL although currently only primary schools fund the service through de- delegation. It would be put to the Forum to agree the recommendation of the ELP board that £100,000 be de-delegated by primary schools or primary and high schools for this purpose for 2019-2021, to be agreed one year at a time. Contingency – A member asked what happened if contingencies were not spent and whether they went back to the schools. Gary replied that this was rare; recently a previous, small surplus had gone to the High Needs Block. In response to further questions raised, Gary advised the committee that when there had been rate re-evaluations in the past, school allocations had been adjusted so that there was no need to raise contingencies. Members present from both the primary school and the high school sectors expressed the view that the rate of funding for contingencies should stay the same. 4 Page 6 of 54 Primary Behaviour Service, Free School Meals Eligibility Checking and Trade Union Facility Time Members were broadly in favour of continuing the de-delegation budgets for these items at the same level as for 2018-2019, as proposed in the report.