Agenda item

To receive and consider a report containing a five year forecast of schools’ finances.

Paul Miller stood down as chair for this item only and John Bayes took the position of chair.

Donna explained that it had been agreed that the Forum would be presented a five year plan every year at its July meeting. The report set out on agenda pages 15-18 had been revised since July 2015 and was as accurate as possible at this point in time.  Donna emphasised that this could change should the new government decide to amend its policies.  Donna stated that this plan reflected the impact of schools in the borough converting into academies over the next five years.  More schools were expected to convert in the near future and this had an impact on the schools finance.

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

·           Paul Miller expressed great concern over the figures presented in the report and how different these were from the previous report.  Paul emphasised that the difference was in the order of millions and he was seeking clarity as to how this numbers had been calculated;

·           Donna explained that the schools’ funding had reduced and the schools allocation had reduced whilst the costs facing schools had increased, also the academisation of schools had had a huge impact;

·           Donna stated that although there was a variation in numbers, a healthy surplus was projected every year, and this was a better position than other local authorities;

·           Donna offered to set up a task and finish group to analyse this plan or to have meetings with members to explain the figures.  Not all members felt this would be beneficial, but some members agreed to contact Donna;

·           Donna stated that the figures had been worked out on the assumption that the pupil funding would remain the same, but this was not certain;

·           Donna explained that once all schools converted to academies, this plan would became redundant as the money would go directly to the schools;

·           Members felt that there was a need to understand in more detail why there was such a variation from the plan last year and the plan this year;

·           In response to a question John Ogden stated that the finance team would be able investigate the variation internally and provide the assurance that the Forum was seeking;

·           Members expected that an explanation around growth fund would be included in the finance team’s investigation;

·           Donna referred to the upcoming consultation and the expectation that growth fund would become formulaic, in which case actual historical spend would be used to determine funds received by the Local Authority.  This could have an adverse impact on any Local Authority that was opening new schools at an increasing rapid rate;

·           Donna explained that the timeframe for the new schools’ places in Earley, Woodley and Shinfield to open had been brought forward to this September as per Executive approval earlier in the year.  This was in response to the Local Authority’s statutory duty to provide school places;

·           Members agreed that it would be useful to have a breakdown of all schools opening in the borough;

·           Donna stated that once more schools converted to academies, the local authority would not be in a position to support the remaining maintained schools and therefore those schools would be in practical terms forced into academy status.

RESOLVED That and analysis of the variation between the 2015 and 2016 Five Year Plan would be presented to the Forum via email.