Agenda item

To Follow

Cathy Burnham reported that there is a significant amount of work going on with PRUs currently, so not all reports have come to this meeting and Heads Funding Group had not previously had sight of this report. This report provided an early update on the impact of changing the PRU bandings from four bands to a single band. To date there is only one half terms of costs from the reintegration service and this shows a reduction in cost compared to the same period last year, so is looking promising. There is a need to ensure that the support to pupils isn’t being compromised by this reduction. Further information will be provided at the next meeting in September.

Cathy gave a verbal update on the PRU strategic review. An options paper has been sent out as a pre consultation to secondary Heads. The three options are a smaller PRU with greater delegation to schools, moderate restructuring with some delegation, and little change. There have so far been seven responses out of ten and the deadline is this Friday. Out of the responses received to date, the preferred option is moderate restructuring. Once the preferred option has been determined this will be costed and sent out to formal consultation to all interested parties.

Mark Bennet questioned why the review was concentrated on secondary (KS4). Cathy commented that permanent exclusions and thus the Alternative Curriculum service will be the main focus of future provision. Concerns were raised about KS5 and the statutory school age is going up. Chris Prosser stated that KS5 had not been fully debated, and David Ramsden agreed that this needs further consideration. Cathy agreed to take this on board.