Schools Forum

Minutes of the Meeting held on 29 November 2011

Time Commenced: 1.35pm  Time Terminated: 3.15pm

Present:

Apologies for Absence:

11. Minutes

The Minutes of the meeting of the forum held on 11 October 2011, having been circulated were approved as a correct record.

The Deputy Head of School Improvement made reference to Minute 46, Support for Schools Causing Concern, and reported that a meeting had taken place between himself, the Executive Director, Children, Learning and Economic Services, the Chair of Tameside Association of Head Teachers (TASH) and the Chair of Tameside Primary Consortium (TPC) with regard to the distribution of specific amounts of the centrally retained £0.300m from the 2011/12 Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) to particular schools. Proposals would be taken back to the next meetings of TASH and TPC and then reported to a future meeting of the Forum.

12. Tameside Support For Schools Update

Consideration was given to a report of the Executive Director Children, Learning and Economic Services which presented an update on the development of a self-improving system in Tameside, and a traded service model for support services to schools.

It was reported that there had been some significant progress in the development of a self-improving school system in Tameside. Discussions with secondary Headteachers had led to the establishment of four family cluster groups from the 18 secondary special schools in the borough. A residential had been held on 4 November 2011 which had established protocols for the way in which they would work together. Additionally, they shared aspects of the work of their schools which they felt were strengths and also highlighted areas for improvement. The same approach had been adopted by other secondary senior leaders who had established a Teaching and Learning Forum in order to support one another to improve the quality of teaching and learning across the borough.

In the primary sector, initial discussions with the Tameside Primary Consortium (TPC) had led to Local Authority School Improvement Officers attending each of the primary cluster group meetings which had taken place in the first half of term in order to discuss how the existing cluster group arrangements might form the basis for developing a self-improving system that met the needs of primary schools. These discussions were then followed up at the Headteachers’ Business Meeting and some of the smaller cluster groups were piloting an approach which was very similar to the one adopted by secondary schools. The other cluster groups were continuing to explore models which would be most effective for them, and LA officers were making themselves available to offer further support as required. An additional conference for primary Headteachers was planned for the first half of Spring Term 2012 in order to make further progress.

With regard to traded services, the Local Authority had carried out consultation with Headteachers, Governing Bodies and the Schools Forum, to ascertain which support services schools needed and valued and would be willing to purchase under this model. This helped to inform how the LA managed service reduction as part of the voluntary severance programme.

It was reported that services delivered fell into three broad areas:

• Statutory services;
• Services schools had identified as a priority and agreed to be funded via the dedicated schools grant; and
• Services the LA would offer and trade to schools at a cost.

At its meeting on 29 March 2011, the Schools Forum agreed to continue to fund some services and functions directly through the retained element of the Dedicated Schools Grant. Detailed information of such services was appended to the report.

A Tameside Support for Schools website had also been created which provided details of all the local services available to schools, provided either by the Local Authority or from school partnership provision as part of the wider self-improving schools system. The website provided a mechanism for schools to request services either from the LA or from partner schools. In addition, the site allowed other local providers to market their services to schools, a discussion forum and a service rating system. It was intended that future developments would include the provision of intelligence concerning school performance and school needs analysis to support a whole systems commissioning approach by schools.

It was reported that work was also planned with the voluntary sector to support the development of their service offer to schools; this would then be included in the website.

It was further reported that a small central function to support the delivery of Tameside Support for Schools had been established and that during the next phase of development, a service to providers would be developed.
It was noted that to date, all Tameside schools had requested some services from the LA, in addition, 3 schools from outside the local authority had requested services. There had been no marketing of Tameside Support for Schools outside of the borough and those schools that had requested provision had received recommendations by ‘word of mouth’ across the education sector.

Agreed

That the content of the report be noted.

13. Proposed School Crossing Patrol Provision Post 31 March 2012

The Executive Director Children, Learning and Economic Services submitted a report which set out the proposals for the provision of a School Crossing Patrol Service beyond 31 March 2011.

It was explained that within Tameside, there were approximately 90 potential SCP sites. 58 of these were currently staffed. For the past 2/3 years as staff had left or retired they had not been replaced. 14 Patrollers over the age of 65 years were currently expected to retire by 31 March 2012 and one further SCP was due to retire on 16 December 2011 leaving a net total of 43 patrollers.

Financial pressures n the Economic and Technical Services budgets were such that (as a non statutory responsibility), the service considered the provision of SCPs was no longer affordable beyond 31 March 2012, in addition with present revenue reductions imposed on the service, there were currently insufficient officers within Technical Services to manage the day to day support of this service.

Two options were put forward to take forward future school crossing provision, as follows:

(i) The provision of a School Crossing Patrol Service (£347,500) resourced via the retained Dedicated Schools Grant. Responsibility for the service provision remained with the Council, and, in this option, it was proposed that the retained DSG funding would be delegated to associated schools and fully recovered by the Council via a direct central recharge; or

(ii) The provision of a School Crossing Patrol Service via traded service arrangements. Schools were to determine if they would procure the service via their delegated section 251 budget. This option allowed individual school and colleges to buy into the SCP provision on an individual basis. It was anticipated that costs would be around £5,000 per point to fund SCP salary, admin support costs, equipment costs, and supervisor salary costs. Overall management will be retained by Economic and Technical Services within the Council as at present.

The advantages and disadvantages of both options were discussed and it was;

Agreed

That Option 1, as detailed above, be approved.

14. School Finance Regulations 2012 Consultation

The Executive Director, Children, Learning and Economic Services submitted a report which gave information regarding the consultation paper issued by the DfE on the school finance regulations for 2012, covering the 2011/12 financial year. The draft regulations were appended to the report.

The report explained the proposed changes since the introduction of the 2011 regulations, including:

• Minimum Funding Guarantee Disapplications;
• Pupil Premium for Excluded Pupils; and
• Remissions of Boarding Fees.

Agreed

1. That the content of the report be noted; and
2. That the existing local scheme for the financing of schools would be updated and presented to a future Schools Forum meeting when the outcome of the 2012 consultation is announced.

15. Central Retained Dedicated Schools Grant – 2011/2012 Quarter Two Revenue Monitoring Statement

The Executive Director, Children, Learning and Economic Services submitted a report which gave information on the 2011/12 quarter two central retained Dedicated Schools Grant cumulative revenue expenditure and projected outturn to 31 March 2012.

Agreed

That the content of the report be noted.

16. Agresso Financial Management Information System Upgrade – Proposed School Pilots

Consideration was given to a report of the Executive Director, Children, Learning and Economic Services which explained a proposal for schools to pilot the use of the upgraded (from 1 April 2012) Council financial management information system – Agresso 5.5, during the 2012/13 financial year. The report explained the rationale for the proposal and potential benefits for the schools and the Council if the school pilots were successful. Schools would continue to use their existing financial management information system (FMS6) during the proposed pilot period.

Agreed

1. That the content of the report be noted;
2. That the proposal (in principle subject to the assessment of any associate expenditure) for the Council to approach up to 3 secondary schools, 6 primary school and 1 special school to participate in the pilots to use the upgraded Agresso financial management information system (version 5.5) during the 2012/13 financial year, be supported;
3. That an update report on any associated costs of the proposed pilots be submitted to the next meeting of the Schools Forum;
4. That update reports on the progress of the proposed schools pilots during the 2012/13 financial year subject to (ii) above be submitted to future meetings of the Forum; and
5. That a further report be submitted to a future meeting of the Forum recommending the use of Agresso 5.5 in all the borough’s schools, should the proposed pilots be successful.

17. Schools Forum Membership – 2011/2012 Academic Year

A report of the Executive Director Children, Learning and Economic Services submitted a report which explained the proposed membership of the Schools forum for the 2011/2012 Academic Year.

The existing constitution of the Forum was explained. There were currently 17 voting schools members (Heads and Governors). Representation from each Sector was pro-rata to pupil numbers in each sector:

• 5 Primary School Heads;
• 3 Primary School Governors;
• 1 Academy Principal or Governor;
• 4 Secondary School Heads;
• 2 Secondary School Governors;
• 1 Special School Head; and
• 1 Special School Governor.

There were 5 voting non school members comprising:

• 1 Tameside Teachers’ Consultative Committee Representative;
• 2 Diocesan Representatives; and
• 1 Early Years Private Voluntary and Independent Sector Representative.

In addition to the 22 voting members, there were also the following named observers who could speak at meetings but had no voting powers:

• 5 Teacher Trade Union members (ATL, NAHT, NASUWT, NUT, ASCL);
• Unison Trade Union member;
• GMB Trade Union members;
• 2 Elected members;
• 2 Local Authority Officers;
• 1 Secondary School Business Manager; and
• 1 Primary School Business Manager.

It was clarified that the structure (as detailed above) gave 22 voting members and 13 non voting members. A quorum for any Forum meeting was 40% of voting members (9).

It was further explained that the DfE issued operational and good practice guidance for schools forums on 17 December 2010, full details of which were appended to the report.

Detailed discussion ensued with regard to the proposals put forward.

With regard to the existing school voting membership an amended proposal was put forward as follows:

That the Special School representation be reduced from 2 to 1 voting member with the addition of a short stay representative. This amendment was seconded and agreed.

Further discussion then took place with regard to the breakdown of Headteachers and Governing Body representatives for Primary, Secondary (Academy and non Academy) and Special schools, and it was;

Agreed

(i) That the schools voting membership for 2011/12 academic year be as follows:

(ii) That the decision on the split between Headteacher and Governor representatives for Secondary Schools – non Academy, be deferred to the next meeting of the Forum.

18. Date Of Next Meeting

It was noted that the next meeting of the Forum would be held on 7 February 2012.

Chair