Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that the minutes of the open meeting held on 12 July 2016 be confirmed as a correct record.

None Received.

Financial Forecasts

The Chair said according to the Government's Bill there would be cuts to the schools budgets, and asked what would be the implications for Lewisham Schools.

The Executive Director for Children  and Young People summarised the Financial Forecasts pertaining to Education and said that a report had already been to the CYP Select Committee which was due to go to Mayor and Cabinet. She stressed that as far as she was aware Lewisham schools were not eager to embrace multi-academy trusts. The Executive Director for CYP said  there were problems with some secondary schools, namely St Matthew Academy and Sedgehill, which was going through the process of becoming an Academy.

Councillor Michael asked for examples of the collaborative work that schools were currently doing. The Executive Director for Children and Young People said emphasis was being put on middle leadership and an experienced former Head Teacher from Wandsworth was helping Lewisham schools with this work. She said the secondary schools were now working together in an open and honest way, learning from each other's successes and failures to improve their schools.

Councillor Curran asked about the current financial position at Forest Hill school and it's implications. The Executive Director for Children and Young People said a number of schools had gone into financial difficulties because of several reasons and Forest Hill was one of them. She said the implications would be they would have to reduce their staff numbers. She said benchmarking their staffing would enable them to deliver quality education. The Executive Director for Children and Young People said an improvement plan had been put in place for the educational and financial challenges that they and other schools would be facing, especially if the government introduce the new funding scheme.

The Executive Director for Children and Young People said a report about the two schools would be going to Mayor and Cabinet next week. The Chair asked what would be the implications of reducing the number of staff at the school and was told that because of the support being given to the school from Human Resources, plus the curriculum support things would not be bad. She emphasised that the first priority was to the pupils in the school.

The Chair asked who provided audit for the school and was told Lewisham. The Chair said, that being the case the Council also have responsibility and a statutory role to sign off the budget. The Executive Director for Children and Young People said officers had identified the problem at the last financial year, and she had immediately asked for all schools that had been spending from their reserves to be visited urgently so they could explain their position. She said the support for education finance within the Council had been reduced and they were now down to 3 staff to do the work, and it had been a challenge to provide proper support. This situation was reflected across the Council’s staff as they were doing complex jobs  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.