Schools Forum December 2021 - Services to schools 2022 to 2023

Meeting: Schools’ Forum

Date: Monday 6 December 2021

Report of: Schools’ Traded Services Manager

Subject: Services to Schools 2022 to 2023 

1.1

To advise the Schools’ Forum about the council’s traded services to schools’ provision for 2022/23, including an outline of the proposed charging approach and details of any new services and changes in provision. 

1.2

To outline key developments, activities and feedback from the past year in relation to traded services. 

2.1

To note and comment on the proposed approach for the council’s services to schools’ provision for 2022 to 2023. 

3.1

The council has sought to minimise the impact of how the traded services have been provided to schools during the Covid-19 pandemic and has been committed to the continued delivery of these services within Covid secure national guidelines.

3.2

The council approach remains to minimise the price uplifts, provide transparency in relation to the pricing mechanism used to calculate charges and provide more clarity on the deliverables of each service.

3.3

The council seeks the support of schools where there are unavoidable inflationary pressures including salary increases and uplifts in external factors such as licence fees and teachers’ pay.

3.4

The following changes to services were introduced in 2021 to 2022:

• Occupational Health – schools can now purchase their provision on a pay-as-you-use basis directly with the awarded provider or an alternative provider of their choice 
• long-term sickness (LTS) and Maternity, Adoption & Paternity Cover insurance schemes – these have been phased out and schools now source their own provider 
• The Literacy Support Service is now delivered within the overall BHISS umbrella of provision rather than as a stand-alone traded service

4.1

All charging models are based on cost recovery only with no profit. Any uplifts are to cover increased costs.

4.2

The following services are making no uplifts: 

• Education Safeguarding Training 
• Energy & Water Management 
• Equality & Anti-Bullying  
• Headteacher Appraisal External Adviser Service 
• ICT Schools & Traded Services: certain surrounding services (tbc in December) 
• Occupational Health & Employee Assistance Programme 
• Outdoor Education & PE Support  
• PSHE  
• School Data 
• School Partnership Adviser (SPA) 

4.3

The following services are making changes to their charges: 

• BHISS: 1.75% uplift  
• Courier: 2% uplift (tbc) 
• Early Career Teachers’ Induction – see 5.1 below 
• Ethnic Minority Achievement Service: 2% uplift 
• Governance Development: 2% uplift 
• Finance: 1.75% uplift  
• Health and Safety: 2% uplift 
• Human Resources Advisory & Guidance: 2% uplift  
• ICT Schools & Traded Services: inflationary rises on core services (tbc in December) 
• Legal: 3.1% uplift 
• School Meals: between 2% & 4% (tbc) 

4.4

The following services are to be confirmed: 

• Caretaking & Site Management 
• Human Resources Admin & Payroll 
• Local Authority Strategic Property Function (CERA)

From September 2021, the statutory induction period for all early career teachers (ECTs) increased from one to two years.

Included within the ECT reforms was the requirement for all schools to ensure their ECTs undertake professional development through the Early Career Framework. This is accessed through an external provider, but Brighton & Hove City Council still acts as the ‘appropriate body’ to support schools with the monitoring and assessment of ECTs.  

The charging structure has been modified to reflect the different support now provided and has been simplified to a flat rate per ECT. All Brighton & Hove schools with ECTs continued to purchase this SLA in September 2021. 

5.1

The BEEM portal for schools has been further enhanced in 2021/22, so that it becomes a ‘one-stop-shop’ resource of services for schools (traded and non-traded). In the last year there have been the following developments: 

• Wellbeing for Education Return: Mental Health Toolkit – pages that host videos for school staff and governors 
• Independent Visiting Service – new pages to provide training and information for independent visitor applicants 
• recorded versions of MS Teams events (particularly for headteachers and governors)  
• updates to the ECT module so schools can submit termly progress reviews (see 5.1 above) 
• a platform for BHISS to sell their ‘Attend’ framework to external settings 

5.3

During the buyback period in the spring term 2022, there will be an online event for school business managers and headteachers to hear from service leads about charges and developments for the 2022 to 2023 offer.

More details will be sent out in the new year.