Decision details

RESOLVED that the minutes be agreed as an accurate record of the proceedings.

In relation to Item 8 of the minutes, regarding school funding, the Chair asked Sara Williams, Executive Director for Children and Young People’s Services, to update the committee regarding school budget deficits, and in particular about Forest Hill School (FHS).

The following was noted:

·         Sedgehill School, Forest Hill School and Prendergast Ladywell Fields College (PLFC) had received approval from the Mayor to deficits of over £500,000.

·         PLFC was on target with its deficit payback plan and was now spending within its budget in-year.

·         Sedgehill School's in-year budget was balanced and it was meeting its repayment schedule.

·         FHS had worked hard to get its budget in reasonable shape through restructuring of support staff and teaching staff. This involved redundancies, with potentially one compulsory redundancy.  Further strike action was anticipated this term.

·         Other schools had smaller deficits and all were producing or had produced recovery plans to be signed off by the Executive Director for CYP.

·         The council had arranged over 20 well-attended training sessions to support schools with budget management and to provide financial health checks.

·         The council’s financial escalation procedure had been tightened to ensure that schools were challenged and that any issues came to light early on.

·         Around 50 schools were operating an in year deficit and all had been challenged, either to show that there were legitimate one-off expenses for which they had saved or that they were addressing and inherent overspend.

·         Approximately 10 schools were carrying out major staffing restructures.

·         Schools were sharing advice and best practice on matters such as use of pupil premium funds, to ensure that funds were being used efficiently.

·         No further deficits were expected to be reported to the Mayor (ie over £500k).

·         Members were concerned that schools would find it hard to achieve improved results while making the savings required by the government changes to the funding formula.