Minutes:
Susan Woodland explained there was little change to report since the last meeting of Schools Forum. Current consultations were drawn to the attention of members:
School Business Rates (consultation closes 5 May): removing the administrative role allowing funding to be paid directly from government to schools. Members hoped the LA would support this proposal as it would be beneficial to the majority of schools.
High Needs Special funding formula, although there would be a SEND review consultation conducted later in the year. This was about how government funded LAs and was based on historical spend and currently based on forecasts for 2017/18 spend with a view to adding actuals. If this were to go ahead it was anticipated SBC would gain by about 8% and receive approximately £11.5m. There had been a great deal of discussion about using a later year in order to be more accuratebut actual spend was being reviewed due to projected spend. It was not anticipated changes would be made until the SEND consultation had been completed: it was added that the introduction of a sparsity factor would not affect Slough schools.
The Workforce Fund for Schools form was available and had to be submitted by 31 March 2021. There were a number of prerequisites attached and Schools could not claim if they had in-year surpluses of more than 4% of revenue funding.
In answer to a question, it was confirmed that although the Teachers’ Pay and Pension grant would now be incorporated in the AWPU amount, alternative providers, special schools and early years providers would continue to receive a separate grant.