Minutes from the Schools Block Working Group Monday 23 November 2020

Present

Chair: Ashley Harrold (AH) Blatchington Mill School

Emma Lake (EL) Hangleton and Benfield Federation

Sarah Wilks (SAW) Hangleton Primary School 

Damien Jordan (DJ) Fairlight Primary School

Rachel Kershaw (RK) St Margaret’s CE Primary School

Jimmy Hollingworth (JH) Longhill High School  

Sarah Wilks (SAW) Hangleton Primary School  

Local authority

Steve Williams (SW) Accountant, Health, Adults, Families, Children and Learning Finance 

Louise Hoten (LH) Head of Finance (Children and Adults)

Richard Barker (RB) Head of School Organisation

Ken Simpson (KS) HR Business Partner/Schools HR Relationship Manager

Apologies

Kate Williams (KW) Longhill High School

1. Welcome and apologies

The Chair welcomed the group, apologies listed on members page.

2. Minutes of previous Meeting Monday 28 September 2020

Item 7 has been actioned regarding teacher’s pay policy. 

• Action: SW to send to RB. Will be discussed later too. 

3. Information/feedback from headteachers

To be discussed later.

 

• Covid grants including Winter Grant

The government announced the provision of a grant that can be linked to the work Marcus Rashford has been involved in regarding Free School Meals (FSM). The local authority has received £865,000. The planned implementation to cover Christmas holidays and February half term was discussed. There is no national scheme unlike the summer holiday programme. RB outlined what work would be needed by schools including the uploading of a list of eligible families with contact details. 

• School budget position (verbal update ahead of report to Forum)

School Covid claims were submitted to Government prior to summer holiday. These fell within the allowable premises, free school meals and additional cleaning contracts. To date, just over £600k has been reimbursed back to schools through this grant. Claims in the exceptional category remain outstanding. Government said there will be a window of opportunity to claim again in the autumn term although a new window – LA awaiting updated announcement. Initial analysis of school budget forecasts for 2020/21 suggest school balances may reduce to approximately £3m by the end of the financial year but this is subject to significant change. Paper going to Schools Forum in December

• Traded services

Vast majority of teams have adapted to the impact of Covid and especially those face to face services such as BHISS and EMAS have had to modify how they work with schools.  

• Action: RB to find out if a Covid 19 clause can be included in the April SLAs to provide protection to schools. 
  
   

(verbal – following letter from Deb Austin and Cllr Hannah Clare)

Letter set out regarding local authority update. AH has requested to have the role of Schools Forum as a decision-making body clarified and this view was supported by other Heads. The letter represents the position of the interim Executive Director and new administration and this approach will be included within the report to the Policy and Resources committee.  The proposed charging will commence in the 2021/22 financial year and charges to schools would be actioned as journals, rather than being agreed through de-delegation mechanisms. 

(verbal) – October 2020 census

SW updated regarding 21/22 budget. SBWG group previously decided not to make any significant changes to the formula and this was supported by Forum in October. Now waiting for October census to come to the local authority from the DfE and notification of the final 2021/22 schools’ block allocation. There has been a reduction in the pupil numbers overall by 174 pupils from October 2019 to October 2020. Significant increase in the number of children eligible for FSM.  LA will submit funding proforma to DfE after the Schools Forum in January and hopefully final budgets will be issued to schools in late January or early February. Timeline is very tight. Fewer children coming through to primary school. RB will try to incorporate this information in the forthcoming presentation to primary headteachers. 

Four schools left the scheme last year. Two primaries leaving end of March. The council is questioning if it can still run the scheme. Due to covid in 2020/21 there is not expected to be a deficit within the scheme and therefore winding the scheme up in 2021/22 is a real possibility. Schools will have to look in the open market to get this insurance. When asked if the council could join the scheme in ESCC RB was clear that each local authority has a way of providing the scheme using their own decisions on funding and this is unlikely to be an option. On the potential of orchestrating bulk buying RB advised that he could not see how the LA could do this meaningful because the issue is it is a decision for each governing body and that is no different the current situation. RS is back into his substantive role and is picking up the work of the LTS scheme in January. 

RB and SW were copied into an e-mail about schools’ dissatisfaction with the service. RB agreed to go away and investigate it. RB clarified that if anyone was unsure about the quality of work and has any concerns then they should contact RB and Gillian Churchill. RB agreed to look at whether a regular contract management meeting with schools and the council can be introduced. 

STRB remit for this year has not come out yet as waiting government announcement on public sector pay freeze.

Government wants to put a cap on exit pay outs of £95k and causing a lot of challenges. Regulation has been implemented from 4th November but for staff in Local Government Pension Scheme this conflicts with requirement to pay full unreduced pension if made redundant over age 55.  Government is consulting on new regulations to resolve this but they much further with significant potential impacts on many staff.

  

Update on Covid 19 reward following proposals brought to September meeting.  Financial reward now not an option being considered due to costs but proposals for additional day of leave is still being considered. At a previous meeting Heads had identified a number of issues with this approach for staff in schools. KS confirmed that schools would have to choose what to implement regardless of the council’s decision. Heads reiterated that an additional day of leave would represent significant problems in schools bearing in mind at the moment staffing levels so volatile.  Also concerned that council doing something just focused on LA direct employed staff is very divisive.  KS asked if schools wished to include a paragraph in the report to committee that talks about what schools do to recognise staff but view of the group was to stay as silent as possible.  KS confirmed that the views of Heads would be made clear to the administration.

 

New special leave policy was implemented corporately in April. KS shared with this group in March and required further engagement with Heads but Covid interrupted. This will come before heads in the new year. A new staff attendance management procedure was agreed corporately last year and likely to be implemented corporately in April 2021. There will be a need to consult with schools, unions and heads on this procedure with the potential of a September 2021 introduction rather than April 2021. Heads endorsed the proposal to aim for September for a launch rather than April.

 

RB advised of a new contract re occupational health, option for schools to do pay as you go rather than annual SLA. RB will investigate the terms and conditions for schools if they wished to consider leaving the scheme. 

11. Date(s) of next meeting(s)

SW will organise new date.