Agenda item

Ian Pearson introduced the report (Agenda Item 6), which summarised the bid for £50,981 that had been received from Spurcroft Primary School to access funding from the ‘Primary schools in financial difficulty’ de-delegated fund. Other bids were received and reviewed by Heads Funding Group, but it was agreed that they did not meet the criteria for approval. The bids were subsequently withdrawn.

After detailed consideration of the bid from Spurcroft for £50,981, the HFG were recommending approval of the bid but to the value of £30k. The report also proposed a second recommendation to the Forum that the HFG would be used a filter to carry out the detailed work in analysing bids and that the bids that came forward to the Forum were those that were considered to meet the criteria and recommended for approval by the HFG.

Jonathan Chishick requested that more detail on bids be included in the appendices for the Forum going forward. He noted that the deficit at Spurcroft had a arisen due to the out of hours club and therefore it would have been helpful to how much the out of hours deficit was and what the position had been at 31^st March 2020. It was noted that the school was setting a surplus budget for 2022/23 and it would be helpful to know how much this surplus was in the context of the £30k. Ian Pearson stated that this point would be taken away from the meeting so that further information could be included with recommended bids in the future. Melanie Ellis concurred and stated she would ensure more information was included.

Keith Harvey proposed that the recommendations set out under section two of the report be approved and this was seconded by Melissa Cliffe. At the vote the motion was carried.

RESOLVED that:

·         The bid from Spurcroft Primary School was approved, with payment being capped at £30,000.

·         Only bids recommended by Heads Funding Group should be submitted to the Schools Forum for approval going forward.

·         Melanie Ellis would ensure that more information was included in appendices for bids being recommended for approval by the Forum going forward.