Minutes:
Bromley Council was currently holding in the region of £9m surplus funds from the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG). This sum had been accrued over the last three years. The report recommended how this money might be used to best effect in the Borough –
· to support key priorities identified as part of the new SEND strategy, the draft of which was due to be ready for consultation early in 2015;
· to purchase and refurbish Beacon House, a large industrial building in the centre of Bromley previously occupied by Springboard, a now defunct national charity, for use by Burwood School;
· to contribute £150k towards the building of a new science block at St Olave’s Grammar School (as a maintained secondary school it could not access any academy capital grants.)
Some Forum members argued that DSG was intended for schools, and that therefore in principle the funding should be distributed to all schools across the borough. Officers responded that this was a special opportunity to make investments that would benefit children and schools across the borough.
The Forum acknowledged the purchase of Beacon House using the £1.7m, but that it would register its concern that it had not been consulted as required. It would await the outcome of reports on the refurbishment of Beacon House and the SEND reforms before making a decision.
RESOLVED that
(1) The Bromley Schools' Forum would consider the recommendation to use some of the underspend to support local SEND reforms, after considering the proposed report on the review of mainstream and specialist provision for children with SEND.
(2) The Forum notes the decision to use in the region of £1.7m to purchase Beacon House (previously the Springboard provision.)
(3) The Forum will consider the recommendation to fund the refurbishment of Beacon House from the unspent DSG monies, following a feasibility report that will come to the next Schools Forum meeting on 20 November 2014.
(4) The Forum does not support the proposal to contribute £150k to the building of the new science block at St Olave’s.