Agenda and minutes

Appointment of chair for the new municipal year (2023-24).

Resolved:

Paul Adair was appointed as chair for the municipal year 2023 to 2024.

Election of vice-chair(s) for the new municipal year (2023-24).

Resolved:

Jeremy Hannay was appointed as vice-chair for the municipal 2023 to 2024.

To note any apologies for absence and substitutions.

Apologies for Absence and Substitutions

PRESENT

Members:

Special Schools: Paul Adair (chair, in person), Ian Buchanan (in person)

Primary Schools: In person: Emma Appelby, Mike Cassidy, Jamie Maloy, Venessa Nicholas and Wendy Smith. Virtual: Iram Woolley

High Schools: In person: Charlotte Hames and Marion Budd. Virtual: Rachel Kruger

Academies: Kimberley Herring and Roisin Walsh (bothvirtual)

Representative of Staff nominated by recognised trade unions: Stefan Simms (in person)

VA and Faith Ethos Academy/Free School Providers: Pete Broadbent (in person)

PVI Nursery Provider: Susan Dhillon (in person)

Non-Executive Members of Council: Councillor J. Martin (in person)

Apologies

There were apologies for absence from:

Primary Schools: Philip Portwood and Jeremy Hannay

Academies: Toni George

Pupil Referral Unit: Jon Hicks

16-19 Partnership:Sajada Sajid

Non-Executive Members of Council: Councillors A. Steed and C. Sharma

Absent

Nursery Schools: Nick Hassanali

Primary Schools: Dave Woods

High Schools: Mia Pye

Vacant positions

Primary Schools x 1

Representative of Non-Maintained SEN providers x1

To consider any urgent matters arising since the despatch of the agenda that the Chair has agreed should be considered at the meeting.

There were none.

There were none.

There were none.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Ealing Schools Forum meeting held on 4 May 2023.

Resolved:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Ealing Schools Forum held on Thursday 4 May 2023 be approved by the Forum and signed by the chair as a true and correct record.

To note the current membership of the Ealing Schools’ Forum.

Resolved:

That the Forum noted the membership and current vacancies on this committee. The chair welcomed the new members on the Forum including Cllr John Martin, Cllr Charan Sharma and Pete Broadbent.

Mr Mike Pinder, Assistant Director, Audit & Investigation, gave an update on fraud risks and prevention. His department was a shared service with Hounslow Council, looking after circa150 schools. Mr Pinder reported that he had recently met with school bursars, who would be feeding back to headteachers and governors. Mr Pinder gave an overview of his findings from the audits of schools’ finance processes which he and his team had recently carried out.

Mr Pinder referred to the slides in his presentation, which were part of the agenda papers. He reported that issues around hospitality expenditure was one of the main trends that schools needed to address; an extract from the Financial Regulations, Gifts and Hospitality, was included in the presentation slides. Mr Pinder said his team had recommended disciplinary action for non-compliance in a few cases across Ealing and Hounslow, where funds had been mis-used in hospitality.

Mr Pinder reminded schools to check the regulations and to refer to the education accountancy and audit teams within the council for advice and guidance. Mr Pinder gave a couple of real life examples that were in the public domain and he went through various steps schools, head teachers and governors could employ to prevent fraud.

The forum, via the chair, thanked Mr Pinder for his presentation.

Kim Price, Planning and Resources Strategic Lead, introduced the rest of the report, the purpose of which was to provide a summary of the outturn position for the Local Authority (LA’s) maintained schools and the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) 2022-23; and highlight issues relating to funding that the Forum will need to consider as part of the Early Years, High Needs, Schools and Central Schools Budgets for 2023-24 and 2024-25.

Ms Price stated that at the summer meeting of the Schools’ Forum officers report on the outturn position of the previous financial year 2022-23, the

current financial year 2023-24, and financial outlook for the coming financial year 2024-25. Further reports would be made in November and then in January. At the January meeting, final budget proposals would be considered before the Schools funding formula allocations would be agreed by the Council and submitted to the Department for Education.

In response to questions from the forum, Kim Price and Tamara Quinn (Assistant Director, Schools Planning, Resources and Service Development) provided the following responses:

·     falling rolls was a factor in primary schools getting into deficit, as it resulted in lower school budgets; as was inflation outstripping the increases in the funding formula elements, particularly where salaries and energy and other bills were concerned

·     the situation for maintained nursery schools was even more acute, with the fall in the birth rate, fewer year groups and smaller budgets together with the fact that funding for maintained nurseries was not lagged, so fewer children immediately resulted in less funding, meaning that nurseries did not receive the same protection as schools in terms of the lag nature of funding, all contributed

·     for special schools, there was a lot of demand, however  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

The next meeting will be held on 29 November 2023.

Resolved:

That the Ealing Schools’ Forum notes the next meeting will be held on Wednesday 29 November 2023.