Agenda item

Cabinet Member Update

The Cabinet Member will update the Panel on any relevant issues. Panel members may ask questions on the update provided.

 

Minutes:

Councillor Paul May, Cabinet Member for Children & Young People addressed the Panel. A copy of the update can be found on their Minute Book and as an online appendix to these minutes, a summary of the update is set out below.

 

He informed them that he had recently attended a meeting between the Council and the Chief Executives of the local Multi Academy Trusts and how important it is to keep good lines of communications open.

 

He explained that a replacement temporary classroom for Twerton Infants School was being sourced by moving one from St Saviour’s Infant School.

 

He said that officers were working on an in house bid for Youth Services that could involve the universities / voluntary sector.

 

He stated that there were no guarantees in place yet over the forthcoming budget, but in his opinion he did not think that further cuts to Children’s Services should be made.

 

He informed that some discussions had taken place with representatives of the voluntary sector regarding future SEND provision. He added that a business case was being worked on for current out of county provision.

 

He explained that the local Health & Wellbeing Board had announced that the next twelve months would be a Mental Health Year.

 

He said how positive the recent Foster Carer Celebration Event had been.

 

He informed the Panel that the Department for Education is introducing a new National Funding Formula (NFF) for Schools by April 2020. He said that for the next 2 financial years the DFE will use the NFF to allocate funding to the Local Authority, but will allow flexibility to retain our existing local formula arrangements should the transition to the NFF be difficult and the LA would like time to transition.

 

He explained that a single member decision will be needed to determine the way forward.

 

He said that all schools have been consulted and the results considered by the Schools Forum who have recommended that I decide to move to the NFF from 1 April 2018.

 

He added that he acknowledged that many schools are feeling under financial pressure and the choice of formula will affect individual schools in different ways. He said though it is important to note that the overall ‘pot’ for B&NES is increasing by 3.9% in 2018-19 (3rd highest increase in the country) and is unaffected by the choice of formula – and that every school is guaranteed a 0.5% per pupil uplift.

 

He explained that the counter argument to moving straight to the NFF is that a small number of schools, including some of those serving our more vulnerable communities, will miss out on the short term opportunity of greater increases in funding which they could have received during the coming two years, under the local formula.

 

He addressed the Panel on his priorities for the service and said that he had a good sense of the work of our children’s services and the challenges and issues that they face. He said he was beginning to describe a set of priorities to focus on with the service in the coming year and would welcome feedback on these.

 

Budgets vs Standards

 

·  Examine demand solutions, including where possible promotion of Early Help/Early Intervention to prevent escalation to specialist services

·  Promote actions to address growing demand pressures in SEND, including development of an investment business plan

 

Deal with demand / growth

 

·  Promote parent 5 placement options system to ensure all school places are filled within the existing school network with a Banes first policy.

·  Continue to plan for school expansion/build projects

·  Work with MATs to reduce demand re SEND

 

Implement Ofsted Children Services Review

 

·  Promote extending local fostering network.

·  Research health/care commissioning coordination?

·  Visit with care workers to understand their pressures.

 

Value added education

 

·  Develop the role of the LA as a champion of the parents’ voice

·  Publicise value added/progress measures table

·  Promote schools additional funding and benefits for students

·  Promote MAT/Parent focus group

 

Changing Role of LA in Education

 

Prepare a delivery plan to

·  Promote academies by 2020

·  Target withdrawal of all uneconomic and non-statutory services by year 2018/2019

 

Working in partnership

 

·  Explore HE research opportunities

·  Offer “excellent” services to others at a commercial rate.

·  Promote Joint commissioning with CCG

·  Coordinate with private sector on common issues.

 

Seek innovation

 

·  Explore options to provide statutory support to last few remaining non-academy schools

·  Positively seek in county opportunities with partners for new SEND provision

·  Examine joint commissioning costs of child and adult services post YCYW.

 

He said that it is his intention to bring a forward plan to the Panel early in 2018.

 

Kevin Burnett asked how are you going to support vulnerable schools who are not yet in MATs or are unable to become members of a MAT (as in the case of some of our Voluntary Aided schools) during this transition time and beyond?

 

The Strategic Director for People & Communities replied that ongoing discussions do take place between the Council and the Catholic Head Teachers and we will continue to support them for as long as is possible. He added that the current focus of the Regional Schools Commissioner is on West Somerset.

 

Kevin Burnett commented that he had been informed recently that it could take up to 12 months for a school to become an academy and then be able to join a MAT. He asked if this was true.

 

The Education Business Manager replied that it should take around 3 – 4 months for a school to become an academy.

 

The Chair asked if support was able to be provided to Head Teachers who are feeling additionally stressed through this process.

 

The Strategic Director for People & Communities replied that support arrangements are in place.

 

Kevin Burnett commented that he and other union representatives were willing to support Head Teachers as much as they could.

 

Councillor Peter Turner commented that it was a big challenge for poor performing schools to become an academy.

 

The Strategic Director for People & Communities replied that it was possible though and that should their performance fall below a threshold they would have no option and will be found a sponsoring MAT by the DfE.

 

Councillor Liz Hardman commented that she appreciated Councillor May’s long term views and supported Early Years funding and expanding SEND provision. She said that school finances were at crisis level and that in real terms there would be a decline of 4.6%.

 

Councillor May replied that the Council must make sure that we do the best we can with what we have. He added that the single member decision relating to the funding formula would need to be made in as fair a manner as possible.

 

The Education Business Manager said that the earliest date a decision could be made was December 14th 2017 and that the final date that the DfE could be notified was January 20th 2018.

 

The Chair asked if this decision was independent of schools receiving Pupil Premium.

 

The Strategic Director for People & Communities replied that the figures quoted exclude Pupil Premium which is unaffected by the changes to the formula.

 

The Chair thanked Councillor May for his update on behalf of the Panel and said on their behalf that they were broadly in agreement with his priorities for the service.