Agenda and minutes

Chair and Vice Chair

John Draper

Headteacher, Swaythling Primary School

Harry Kutty

Headteacher, Cantell School

Primary School Representatives

Amanda Talbot-Jones

Headteacher, St Deny’s Primary School

Peter Howard

Headteacher, Fairisle Junior School

Mike Adams

Headteacher, Bitterne Manor Primary School

Primary Governor

Mac McBride

Governor, Banister Primary School

Ross Williams

Governor, Mason Moor Primary School

Secondary School Representatives

James Henderson

Woodlands Community College

Special Schools Representatives

Maria Smith

Headteacher, Vermont School

Luisa Whittick

Headteacher, Compass School

Academy Representatives

James Rouse

Headteacher, St Anne’s Catholic School

Sean Preston

Chief Financial Officer, Hamwic Trust

Non School Representatives

Rob Sanders

Diocesan Rep., Diocese of Winchester & Portsmouth

SCC Officers

Derek Wiles

Service Lead – Education

Nick Persson

Finance Business Partner for Education

Clodagh Freeston

Service Manager – Education Strategy, Planning and Improvement

Tammy Marks

Service Manager – Special Educational Needs and Disability, Children and Families

Áine Rand

Meeting Support (minutes)

Cllr Paffey

Councillor, Cabinet Member Aspiration, School and Lifelong learning

Colin Grant

Governor, Cedar School

Cllr Lisa Mitchell

Councillor for Portswood Ward

Martin Brown

Principal of Oasis Academy Sholing

Anne Downie

Early Years Manager

Anna Wright

Owner - Paint Pots Nursery

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

In accordance with the Localism Act 2011, and the Council’s Code of Conduct, Members to disclose any personal or pecuniary interests in any matter included on the agenda for this meeting.

NOTE:  Members are reminded that, where applicable, they must complete the appropriate form recording details of any such interests and hand it to the Meeting Support Officer.

JD advised that a Secondary School Governor Rep. was required although the balance remains with the Primary Schools. JD suggested that the Secondary Schools nominate a Secondary Governor Rep. 

HIGH NEEDS DEFICIT WORKING PARTY UPDATE(TM)

·  Papers for Information and discussion

TM gave an overview of the discussions from the high needs meeting and requested Schools Forum thoughts moving forward as part of the consultation. The High Needs working party was set up to make recommendations to Schools Forum and was made up of reps from both Schools Forum and schools across the city to look at

·  Firstly: The pressure on the High Needs budget that has accrued deficits of 9.3M.

·  Secondly: the historic lack of transparency around how the High Needs budget is used.

The working party looked at the increasing complexity of need in the city. In 2014 the government brought in new reforms around SEND that extended the rights of pupils to have EHC plans from 0-25 years. Southampton traditionally sat below the national average for those children statements. At that time Southampton had 790 statements of SEN and today it has approximately 1,800 statements. This is a significant increase in the number of children with an EHC plan therefore, there is an increase on spend per head that follows the child into mainstream schools and equally there is a demand on special schools due to the complexity of needs.

From a cost avoidance perspective SCC has spent time, money and effort investing in additional places in the special schools to prevent the cost of the independent placements outside the city.

The working group went thought various issues and the figures were demonstrated. They looked at the current spend on High Needs comparatively to the neighbouring local authorities. TM advised that the figure in Southampton is not as shocking as it is for those other local authorities. Southampton Local Authority are keeping the number of children placed outside the city low although they recognise that they can do more to decrease this. The group spoke in detail regarding the historical issues that led to the pressure in that budget, this was illustrated in the circulated PowerPoint.

TM contextualised the screen shared PowerPoint and noted that the number of complexity of SEND is increasing in the city. In 2016/17 the NFF put a cap on High Needs and that in turn has put financial pressure on the High Needs budget and the deficit for 2020/2021 is 9.3M, this had a detrimental impact on SCC finances. The DFE recognised the High Needs pressure nationally and provided funding increases over a 3 year period to LA’s to get the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.