The Portfolio Holder for Children,
Education and Families, Cllr Peter Fortune, attended the meeting to
respond to questions from the Committee. The Portfolio Holder
gave a brief introduction highlighting the following
issues:-
- The Council had welcomed the new Director
of Education, Jared Nehra, who had joined the Council at the
beginning of January. The recruitment process had been very
positive involving Members, Head Teachers and Bromley
children. The Director had hit the ground running and had
already been involved in a number of meetings.
- The Portfolio Holder expressed his thanks
to Lynda Doel who had recently hosted him at St John’s
Primary School.
- The official decision in relation to the
Bullers’ Wood Planning
application had been received and it was pleasing that the
application could now be progressed.
- At the beginning of January a week long
Ofsted Inspection of Adult Education Services had taken place
following the restructure and redesign of the Service. The
outcome of the Inspection would be published later in
February.
- The Portfolio Holder reported that he was
“desperately proud” of the work that had been done
within Children’s Services at Bromley. Significant
investment had been made in improving services. There
were now more permanent staff. The
Council had invested in technology to ensure sure that the staff
had the right tools to do their job and provide support to the most
vulnerable children. In addition, schools now had dedicated
social workers. The Portfolio Holder stressed that the
turnaround, which had been validated by the published outcome of
the Ofsted Inspection, was a testament to all those involved
including staff, the departmental leadership, and Members.
The Portfolio Holder concluded by emphasising that everyone across the Council needed
to ensure that “the child was at the centre of all that we do.”
Cllr Fortune then responded to questions
making the following comments:-
- The Portfolio Holder confirmed that in
relation to the opening of Bullers’ Wood School for Boys at the St
Hughes site, representatives from the Council had met extensively
with the ESFA and representatives from the School. The
Planning Application had been submitted for temporary accommodation
and assurances had been given that subject to planning everything
was in place to open on the temporary site in September 2019.
A suggestion had been made by the Council that an extension to the
use of the Westmoreland site would be a useful safety net, however
the ESFA had been clear that they would not entertain
this.
- The Local Authority was under pressure in
relation to finances. The money that had been invested in
Children’s Services in the Borough was money well
spent. At each visit, Ofsted inspectors had challenged the
Local Authority about the sustainability of the budget. The
Portfolio Holder confirmed that he was confident that the budget
was sustainable and would enable the delivery of further
improvements.
- In relation to the provision of a
Catholic Secondary School in the Borough;
the Local Authority itself did not have the power to open
schools, the Diocese would have to do this. Officers from the
Council had been liaising with the Diocese, discussions were
ongoing but no firm plans were yet in place. The statutory
responsibility of the Council was to ensure that there were
sufficient school places. Whilst it was acknowledged that
there were seven Catholic primary schools in the Borough and no
Catholic secondary school for the children to move on to, the
Council had met its statutory responsibility to provide sufficient
school places.
- In relation to the Dedicated Schools
Grant; the Portfolio Holder emphasised that it was unquestionable
that school finances were under pressure. Over the last 10 to
15 years there had been a number of changes to the way in which
schools operated. In addition to this there was an ever
increasing need for provision for children with special educational
needs and disabilities funded through the High Needs Funding
Block. The Local Authority responding to recommendations from
the
SEND4Change review to manage these pressures. The
Council had also agreed to fund £2m from its reserves as well
as applying to the Secretary of State for permission to transfer
£1m from the Schools Block to the High Needs Block.
Furthermore, the Local Authority had been notified that the DfE had
allocated additional High Needs funding of £788k for both
2018/19 and 2019/20. The decision to continue to pursue the
disapplication request was taken in order to enable further
lobbying on the issue of High Needs Funding as it was important to
emphasise that the High Needs Block in Bromley was
underfunded. The Portfolio Holder stressed the importance of
lobbying in order to ensure that Bromley schools and their pupils
had the necessary level of funding. Once a meeting had been
secured with the relevant Minister this point would be
made.
- The Portfolio Holder confirmed that the
disapplication request was made in the context of discussion involving
himself, Officers, the Leader of the Council, and the Portfolio
Holder for Resources, Contracts and Commissioning. The
process that had been followed was the same one that was used in
2017/18. Members of the Committee expressed concern that they
had not been given advanced notification of the decision to submit
the disapplication request and there had been no scrutiny of this
request until this meeting.
- The issue of the impact of lagged funding
for new Free Schools was raised at a Primary Head Teachers’
meeting. The Council would continue to lobby the DfE over
this issue which was having a disproportionate impact in Bromley.
Following a meeting between the Portfolio Holder, Headteacher representatives and Bob Neill MP, the
MP had written to the Minister of State Nick Gibb MP, seeking a
meeting. The issue would, with the
approval of Members, be added to the draft Select Committee Report
on the Education budget.
Members of the Select Committee expressed
concerns in relation to the lack of transparency surrounding the
disapplication request to the Secretary of State. The
Chairman suggested the process for this type of decision (one taken
by a small group of officers and councillors) should be referred to the
Council’s Constitutional Improvement Working Group for
further consideration. The Portfolio Holder informed the
Committee that, due to the changes around the National Funding
Formula, the option to apply for disapplication would not be
available next year. That is why it was important to lobby as
extensively as possible to highlight concerns.
The Select Committee also requested that
at the next meeting the Portfolio Holder set out the mitigation
that was being put in place in relation to pressure on High Needs
funding.
The Chairman and Committee thanked the
Portfolio Holder for his update.