· Governor vacancy
· Early Years feedback on numbers
· School Admissions benchmarking and cost of legal challenges
Minutes:
Governor vacancy
The Chairman stated that as a result of Ian Head, governor representative, stepping down, there was now a primary school representative vacancy in the Forum. The Forum was informed that this vacancy could be filled by a headteacher, a governor or a school business manager, and it was up to the primary phase to appoint someone. Corrina Gillard agreed to raise this with the primary phase and keep the Forum informed.
Early Years feedback
Gail Prewett informed that a meeting between Early Years providers and the local authority had taken place and this had been very positive. There was now more clarity as to how services were being charged and how support was going to be delivered.
Kerry Clifford agreed that it was positive that communication was improving and this should continue. She expressed disappointment that not many providers had been present at a recent meeting arranged specifically for leader of the Early Years settings.
School Admissions benchmarking and cost of legal challenges
The Chairman stated that Jim Leviers had indicated that the service did not have the resources to carry out this research. Schools Forum had the option of asking for this piece of work to be commissioned. The Chairman suggested and the Forum agreed to defer the discussion of this possibility to the next meeting when it was hoped that Jim Leviers would be able to attend and discuss the idea in more detail.
High Needs Block (HNB) Task and Finish Group
Ginny Rhodes expressed great concern over the lack of progress in tackling the HNB difficulties. She stated that this state of inertia added to the pressure on funding and ultimately impacted the children for whom the local authority had resposability.
The Chairman stated that Patricia Davies, former Interim Assistant Director of Education had identified two strands of work. One was at the strategic level, looking over a longer horizon at building/commissioning new specialist schools and increasing resource places; the second, reflecting Schools Forum’s responsibilities, was looking at addressing the short and medium term HNB funding and expenditure programme.
The following points were made during the discussion of the HNB:
· Members of Schools Forum recognised that there had been many changes at senior leadership level, however, there was an urgent need to put a strategic plan in place to address this difficult situation;
· Janet Perry questioned if there was a link between the multiple changes in leadership and the HNB difficulties;
· Janet Perry would like to know who was responsible for the HNB situation. She stated that Schools Forum had been criticized by the previous Director of Children’s Services for not tackling the expenditure challenges, however, Schools Forum’s powers were limited and its responsibilities did not extend to executive decision making;
· Councillor Younis stated that there was no blame culture in the Council and that a collective effort was being made to address these challenges;
· Corrina Gillard stated that problems with the HNB had been identified a several years ago and that it was frustrating that no action had been taken to tackle them. She stated that Jane Winterbone, former Interim Assistant Director of Education had commissioned a Resource Place Review (late 2017/early 2018) and it was disappointing that no action had been taken as a result;
· Sara Attra expressed frustration that she was unable to communicate with the local authority about resource base places and funding for those places;
· Jay Blundell stated that it had been agreed that Foundry College would be expanded, with an increase of places from 47 to 85, however, it was not clear where the base funding for these additional places was going to come from, and she had been unable to speak to anyone from the local authority to confirm the funding;
· Councillor Younis reassured members that work was being undertaken to address these challenges;
· Bob Watson, Lead Finance Specialist stated that the pressure on HNB was being faced by many local authorities nationally. The Council recognised that having interim staff in strategic leadership posts had not helped the situation and the Council was looking to redress this situation. Bob Watson commented that Wokingham had faced difficulty in recruiting permanent staff, with one reason given that the Borough did not qualify for London weighting;
· Schools Forum members expressed serious concern and frustration that the HNB was not being managed properly and that whenever this was questioned the local authority repeated the same unsatisfactory explanations;
· Sara Attra stated that another issue was the lack of data, there was no information about how many children were expected to need specialist places;
· The Chairman stated that it was important to continue the financial planning undertaken by the HNB Task and Finish Group and to involve Schools Forum members in the strategic planning.
Councillor Younis agreed to investigate the issues raised by Schools Forum outside the meeting.