Agenda item

Ian Pearson introduced the report (Agenda Item 12), which set out the budget proposal for services funded from the Central Schools’ Services Block (CSSB).

The final allocation of funding for the CSSB for 2020/21 was £951,820. The table on page 86 of the report showed the budget requirement for services that fell within the CSSB for 2020/21 compared to 2019/20.

There had been a shortfall on the block since it was established and section 5.1 of the report set out how this shortfall had been managed. Areas for discussion going forward included the transfer of funding from one of the other blocks. More detailed proposals on this would be brought to the next round of meetings in January 2020.

Ian Pearson referred to page 131 of the report, and stated that there were numerous activities supported by the Central Schools Services Block, including servicing the Schools’ Forum which benefitted all schools though the pupil number used to calculate the allocation excluded nursery special and PRU.

Ian Pearson stated that in 2018 there had been a transfer from the Early Years and High Needs Blocks into the CSSB to properly reflect activity. This would be looked at in more detail at the next round of meetings in January 2020.

 Jonathon Chishick queried if there was scope for sharing services across smaller local authorities. Ian Pearson reported that this had been explored in the past and some of West Berkshire Council’s services were already shared. However, due to a number of factors including economies of scale and decision making, agreement for a shared service had never been reached.

(Reverend Mark Bennet joined the meeting at 6.23pm)

Jonathon Chishick referred to Copyright Licensing and felt that this was an area that could potentially be shared. Ian Pearson reported that some areas were negotiated at a national level by the Department for Education (DfE). More detail including the time spent by teams on each area could be found under Appendix A. 

Councillor Erik Pattenden referred to section 4.2 and the reduction in staff and asked what impact this reduction was having. Ian Pearson reported that regarding team reductions, the Finance Support Team was under the most pressure with a 29% reduction. Melanie Ellis reported that there had been many changes to the Schools’ Finance Team over the past year. Sustainability would need to be evaluated going forward.

RESOLVED that the Schools’ Forum noted the report.