Issue - meetings

The Forum considered a report providing details of a proposal to review the de-delegation of funding relating to facilities for maintained primary schools.  Maintained schools had the option to hand back to the LA to manage specific areas of funding on their behalf (de-delegate) in line with the DfE regulations.  The two areas delegated in Bromley were supply staff costs (covering maternity, jury service, suspension and, union/facilities time) and free school meal eligibility.

The Joint Teacher Liaison Committee (JTLC) had requested that the Forum review the de-delegation for supply costs for 2016/17.  In 2015/16 the total budget for all these areas was £177,000, calculated at £18.50 per pupil.  However, of this total only around £3,000 related to facilities time related expenditure, this being around 31p per pupil.  The JTLC requested that the facilities time related expenditure should be dis-aggregated from the budget and that alternative arrangements then be made for maintained primary schools to contribute to a separate “pot” along with academies.  The implication of this being that the amount to be de-delegated would reduce to around £18.19 per pupil.

Following discussion the Forum agreed the proposals in principle but felt that it would be more appropriate for a decision to be taken at the next meeting when more members would be present.

RESOLVED: that the proposals be agreed in principle, but that an item for decision be placed on the agenda for the Schools’ Forum meeting in January 2016.