Recommended –

That the minutes of the meeting held on 5 July 2017 be signed as a correct record (previously circulated).

The Business Advisor (Schools) reported on progress made on “Action” items as follows:

·         Item 253 Matters Raised by Schools (page 4): The matter raised by Bingley Grammar School is presented on the agenda. The matter raised by the CEO of BDAT is being taken forward. An initial report about the position of de-delegated funds, including benchmarking, will be presented to the Forum at the next meeting.

·         Item 256 Schools Forum Membership (page 5): The agreed composition is being worked towards and further action will be taken this term to establish the Forum as agreed and refresh memberships.

·         Item 257 Oastler School (page 6): The Forum’s recommendation is on the Executive’s work plan for its beginning of November meeting.

·         Item 258 DSG Update (page 7): The request for further information on significant value grants being allocated into the District will be presented to a future meeting.

·         Item 259 SEND Matters (page 8): An update on the SEND review is included in this meeting’s agenda.

·         Item 260 Schools Outturn Balances (page 9): The Authority is continuing to have discussions outside the Schools Forum on the financial position of Hanson School.

·         Change of date July 2018 meeting: Following the request made at the last meeting, the July 2018 Schools Forum meeting has been re-scheduled for 11 July.

Other Matters Arising

·         Early Years – Starters and leavers: The Business Advisor (Schools) explained that a fuller update will be provided with the consultation / report regarding EYSFF arrangements at the next meeting. The move to ‘starters and leavers’ based counting arrangements, aligned with the 30 hours offer, is now not planned to begin until 1 April 2018. The movement to this approach will be formally consulted on within the EYSFF 2018/19 consultation.

·         Alternative Provision – Adjustment to the formulaic basis for funding top up for placement of pupils in AP provisions that do not have EHCPs: The Business Advisor (Schools) asked Members to recall that, within the option 4 methodology for balancing the 2017/18 DSG allocation, agreed back in January 2017, was the adjustment of the formulaic method for funding top up in AP provisions from September 2017; from a 50% Range 4D + 50% Range 5 method to 75% Range 4D + 25% Range 5. The purposes of this were 2 fold a) the achievement of a balanced DSG by sharing the savings across a number of spending lines and b) signalling the intent to cease the ‘double funding’ of these placements at the beginning of the 2018/19 academic year, allowing settings notice to prepare for the direct collection of top up funding from commissioners that would be needed in the future. The Business Advisor explained that, following discussion with schools, the BACs and AP providers, the Authority has taken the view that this change should not be implemented at 1 September 2017 before the current holistic review is completed. However, the Authority still wishes to strongly signal that non-EHCP top up funding from the HNB, where the pupil remains on the roll of the commissioning school, results in double funding and this cannot continue.