Agenda item

To receive and consider a report reviewing the membership composition of the Forum.

The Forum considered the report that was circulated containing information and a proposal regarding the Schools Forum membership.

Alan Stubbersfield, Interim Assistant Director Learning and Achievement went through the report outlining the need to review the membership of the Forum in view of the recent increase in the number of academies in the borough. 

It was a requirement that the composition of the Forum should reflect and be proportionate to the number of pupils in each school, academy and phase. The regulations stated that school members and academy members must together comprise at least two thirds of the membership of the Forum.

Special schools, pupil referral units and nursery schools must be represented in the Forum.

During the discussion of the item the following points were made:

·           It was noted that the imbalance in the number of governors for certain categories was due to a lack of volunteers. This was something that Officers could try and address once the final composition was agreed;

·           Members felt that there was inaccuracy in the tables presented in the report.  Alan recognised that it had been a struggle to produce the report in time for the meeting and that more work needed to be done to improve the report before the next meeting;

·           Officers noted that neighbouring authorities had fewer members in their forums;

·           Some members questioned the rationale for not taking into account the sixth form pupils in the calculations and pointed to regulations supporting this;

·           Donna quoted other regulations excluding sixth form numbers and explained that the sixth form was not funded by the Dedicated School Grant and therefore the Forum could not influence or make decisions on sixth form funding. Sixth form was funded by the Education Funding Agency based on learner hours rather than pupil numbers;

·           The October census would be used for the next report but it was anticipated that the numbers wouldn’t vary significantly;

·           There could be a distinction between the number of members and the number of votes in each category;

·           According to the regulations only certain people had speaking rights, but the chair was minded not to prevent due contributions from interested parties;

·           The main purpose of the membership review was to ensure that the Forum had enough expertise to make good decisions for all the schools in the borough.

·           It was important to agree and appoint members to the Forum before the final budget submission;

·           In order to save time at the next meeting, it was agreed that discussions about the new structure take place via email;

·           Members asked that the report be produced in sufficient time to allow the members to consider it.

Alan suggested that the Forum considered carefully the proposal and its implications and that a decision should be taken at the next meeting in November.  Alan encouraged members to send him their views and suggestions around the composition of the Forum.

RESOLVED That:

1)       An update report be produced and circulated to members of the Forum;

2)       Discussions and suggestions would be carried out before the next meeting via email;

3)       The final agreement on the membership would be sought at the next meeting on 18 November 2015.