Agenda

Purpose of report

The purpose of this report is to inform Schools Forum of the progress being made towards the implementation of changes to School Funding for 2015-16 and to seek approval for the first stage of the submission to the Department for Education (DfE) of the 2015-16 budget proforma.

Recommendations

It is recommended that Schools Members:

a.    Agree that following confirmation of the 2015-16 Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), officers will amend the unit values to minimise the impact of fluctuations in funding at the school level and to maintain overall affordability. In order to provide schools with some certainty, where possible any changes will be limited to the following formula factors:

·         Basic Per Pupil Entitlement

·         Prior attainment

·         Lump Sum

·         The percentage of the financial cap

b.    Agree the proposed changes to the mainstream funding formula factors, together with the choices that the Council has made in implementing these factors locally, as detailed at paragraph 4.6.

c.    Approve the submission of the draft proforma to the DfE as the first stage of the 2015-16 school's funding formula process.

d.    Agree by phase, (maintained primary and secondary schools) the de-delegation of the following budgets for central administration in 2015-16.

e.     Agree the proposed Growth Fund criteria for 2015-16 as set out on page 15 of the attached consultation document.

f.     Agree that Portsmouth will not operate a Falling Rolls Fund in 2015-16, for the reasons explained within the attached consultation document.

g.    Note, that subject to the government's consultation on the Finance Regulations, the DfE are proposing to increase the funding for Alternative Provision places from £8,000 to £10,000 from 01 September 2015.

h.    Note, that if it is agreed to increase the funding for Alternative Provision places, the top-up rates for Flying Bull Primary and the Harbour School would need to be reduced as follows, in order to maintain overall affordability.

Purpose

The purpose of this report is to seek Schools Forum approval of the revised constitution attached at Appendix 2. The amendments contained within this paper are intended to update the Schools Forum constitution to ensure that there is appropriate representation; particularly with the increasing number of schools converting to Academy status within the city.

RECOMMENDATION

It is recommended that the Schools Forum approves the revised constitution attached at Appendix 2 of the report to take effect from 1^st November 2014.

Purpose

The purpose of this report is to determine the methodology that should be used to secure a contribution from schools towards the Council's annual school modernisation capital programme.  

Recommendations

 It is recommended that Schools Forum consider and approve one of the following options for school contributions to the annual school modernisation capital programme (full details of the options are set out in paragraph 4.5):

a)    Option 1a - All maintained schools contribute an amount equivalent to the devolved formula capital (DFC) allocation.

b)    Option 1b - All maintained schools contribute an amount equivalent to 1% of the schools budget share.

The contributions in option 1a and 1b would be weighted as follows:

c)    Option 1c - Only maintained schools with capital projects contribute an amount equivalent to their DFC allocation, on the following basis, using the weighting methodology in option 1a above:

Scheme Value £15,001 - £50,000 – equivalent of 1 year’s DFC allocation

Scheme Value £50,001 - £100,000 – equivalent of 2 year’s DFC allocation

Scheme Value above £100,000 – equivalent of 3 year’s DFC allocation    

The next meeting is on 10 December 2014. 

The proposed dates for meetings in 2015 are (all meetings are at 4.30pm):

21 January

25 February

22 April

15 July