Agenda item

Ian Pearson introduced the report (Agenda Item 6), which aimed to summarise bids that had been received from Beenham Primary School and Purley CofE Primary School to access funding from the Primary Schools in Financial Difficulty de-delegated fund (SFDF).

Ian Pearson explained that the SFDF was contributed to by maintained primary schools only. The criteria that schools could bid against was set out within the report on page 24. Two schools had submitted a bid to the fund including Beenham and Purley Primary schools. Both schools had presented their bids to a virtual meeting of the Heads Funding Group (HFG) and answered any questions raised by headteachers. Included in the report were summaries of the two bids. Both bids had been assessed as meeting the criteria and had been supported by the HFG.

The bid from Beenham Primary school, if awarded, would allow the school to address a settlement resulting from a long term absence of a member of staff and would also enable the school to get out of deficit by the end of the financial year.

The bid from Purley Primary School related to the long term absence of a member of staff. When this bid had been presented to the HFG there had been support for the case however, it had been noted that a subsequent bid might be submitted by the school later in the year to cover the remaining costs once the matter had been resolved.

Keith Harvey referred to the discussion that had taken place at the HFG regarding the two bids and reported that both bids had been supported.

Catie Colston proposed that the Schools’ Forum approve the bids and this was seconded by Hilary Latimer. The Chairman invited the Schools’ Forum to vote on each of the bids and at the vote the motion was carried.

RESOLVED that the Schools Forum approved that the bids from Beenham Primary School and Purley CofE Primary School be approved.