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

·         NJC Pay Award: The Business Advisor reported that the NJC 2 year pay award offered in December 2017 has been accepted and is being actioned in Bradford Council in June. The Authority stills await further information on the recommended teacher’s pay award from September and confirmation of any change in the employer’s contribution to teacher pensions expected from April 2019.

·         Looked after Children: The request for an annual report on LAC outcomes will be taken forward as part of the Forum’s agenda planning. In response to the requests for further information on the report presented to the last meeting, the Business Advisor reported that:

o   Of the 29 associates stated in the report, 24 posts are currently filled. 10 of these are cross-phase; 8 are primary; 5 are secondary. These are headcount (not FTE). These associates are employed on flexible contracts and their hours expand and contract according to need.

o   Monies received from OLAs can be used to purchase support from Bradford’s Virtual School if the School have the capacity to do so. Certainly, the VSH can advise on support options and can broker this. The financial framework is complicated and we would advise that schools wishing to explore further the options around the use of monies for OLA LAC discuss this directly with the VSH who will work this through.

·         SEND / SEMH reviews: The High Needs Block ‘Steering Group’ has been established and met for the first time on Monday 21 May. An update will be provided within agenda item 6.

·         Scheme for Financing Schools / Financial Regulations: The revision and consultation on these documents is still a work in progress. It is expected that a presentation will be made to the next Schools Forum meeting in July. The Business Advisor reported that the DfE has directed some revisions to authority Schemes, as indicated previously (on the purposes of loans), and these revisions have been incorporated into the current version of our Scheme, which can be accessed on Bradford Schools Online.

·         Warning about Budget Cost Pressures: A number of actions have been taken since the last Forum meeting, as requested, to circulate key messages. The Vice Chair circulated an email to secondary phase principals and this was an agenda item at a recent CEOs meeting. Presentations have been made to BPIP and the business manager forums. Schools Funding Team is now engaging directly with quite a number of maintained schools individually on a priority-led basis about their 2018-2021 budget projections. School funding continues to be a national Political issue. However, there does not yet appear to be any suggestion that additional monies will be allocated into core formula funding in 2019/20 other than what has already been announced. The DfE continues to publish information aimed at supporting schools and academies to manage their budgets and achieve value for money, including access to national procurement deals e.g. supply. This information is available directly on the DfE’s website but we signal it in BSO on our latest news and updates page. The DfE, as another example, has recently re-published its Metric Scorecard, which gives primary and secondary schools and academies a value for money score of between 1 and 10, rating its spend vs. outcomes for children.

·         Schools Forum Membership: the Chair reported that the maintained primary Headteacher vacancies have now been filled, with Bryan Harrison (headteacher of Miriam Lord Primary School) and Graham Swinbourne (Headteacher of Stanbury Primary School) taking these memberships.

Resolved –

(1)       That progress made on “Action Items” be noted.

(2)       That the minutes of the meeting held on 14 March 2018 be signed as a correct record with the agreed amendments to the meeting attendance.

ACTION:       City Solicitor