Category: Governance

Categories
Governance

New National Funding Formula for schools

The government has announced the long-awaited second stage of consultation into a new national funding formula for schools. It is proposed that changes will be made in two stages:

  1. From April 2018: funding will be re-distributed between local authorities (LA) but LA formulae will remain as a transitional year.
  2. From April 2019: a National Funding Formula (which the DfE have styled a hard NFF).

What might the proposals mean for your school? Visit the Schools national funding formula page on the DFE website (external link)   and then download the database called Impact of the proposed schools NFF.

The consultation closes on 22 March 2017. 

Categories
Early Years Governance

Early Years Funding Consultation – government response published

On Thursday 1 December the Department for Education published its response (external link) to the Early Years Funding Consultation. The consultation launched in August was the third strand of the funding consultation. The outcome of the consultation is that:

A new early years national funding formula will allocate funding to local authorities (LAs) for the existing 15 hour entitlement for all three and four year olds and the addition 15 hours for children of eligible working parents. This will include a base rate and an uplift for additional needs.

  1. Hourly (average) funding rates will be increased to: £4.94 from £4.56 for three and four year olds and £5.39 from £5.09 for two year olds
  2. There will be a minimum funding rate to LAs of £4.30.
  3. LAs must pass at least 93% of funding to providers.
  4. For the duration of this Parliament an additional £55million a year supplementary funding will be provided to LAs to support maintained nursery schools in recognition of the higher costs these providers face.
  5. LAs will be able to use a limited set of funding supplements (no more than 10% of funding allocated to providers) to take account of deprivation, rurality/sparsity, flexibility and quality (workforce/leadership qualifications), and for English as an Additional Language.
  6. A new disability access fund will be introduced to support access to free entitlements – £12.5m per year (equivalent to £615 per child accessing their free entitlement).
  7. Legislation will be brought forward to require all areas to set up a local inclusion fund for children with special needs and disabilities.  In future this will need to be included in the Local Offer.
  8. The Early Years Pupil Premium will continue.
Categories
Governance

New Funding for School Improvement

The Secretary of State has announced (external link) some further work on School Improvement and funding.   

Further details and criteria for bids and the allocation mechanism, will be provided in due course but we do not expect the new fund for local authorities to be significantly more than the minimum of £50k given the overwhelmingly high performance of Haringey’s maintained schools.

Categories
Governance

Ofsted Annual Report 2015/16

The Ofsted annual report into the education system in England has been  published, by Sir Michael Wilshaw, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI).

Presenting his fifth and final report as HMCI before stepping down this month, Sir Michael said “a world class education system is within our grasp – but only if serious capacity challenges are urgently addressed”.

Sir Michael also stressed that a north/south ‘geographical divide’ meant the most able pupils in the North and Midlands were less likely to reach A/A* at GCSE. He said: “Standards can only truly be considered high if they are high in every part of the country and for all pupils regardless of background or ability.”

As well as the report’s main headlines, there were several points made throughout about school governance including how changes to the education system will increase the importance of the role of governing boards and how weak governance is often found to be at the root of school failure.

Visit the NGA website (external link) to read more about the report.

Categories
Governance Schools

Edubase reminder for maintained schools

Since 1 September 2016, all boards of maintained schools and academies have had a duty under Section 538 of the Education Act 1996 to update Edubase with information about people involved in governance. This requirement is explained in more detail here<https://www.gov.uk/government/news/national-database-of-governors>.

The DfE has recently advised that a significant number of local authority maintained schools have yet to complete their governance fields on Edubase. Please can you ensure that you have complied with this requirement. Governors hold an important public office and this new measure is a helpful way to increase transparency around those who govern our schools. While child protection and safeguarding investigations are rare, having this information in one place will make it quicker and easier to identify more accurately where someone is involved in the governance of schools.

Social Mobility State of the Nation report published

The State of the Nation report on social mobility in Great Britain has been published by the Social Mobility Commission. This document looks to assess ‘progress towards improving social mobility and what could be done to accelerate [this] process’. Although this document talks about skills and career prospects, it also provides a valuable insight into what more can be done in schools, sixth forms and early years settings to increase social mobility.

Autumn Statement 2016

The headlines for education in  the Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond’s Autumn Statement to the House of Commons were:

  1. £50 million of new capital funding to support the expansion of existing grammar schools.
  2. Tax-free childcare will be introduced gradually from early 2017, with roll out beginning upon completion of a trial.
  3. Support for the RSA to pilot the promotion of cultural education in schools.

DfE announce investment in music education hubs

The government has announced investment of over £300 million to enable children to enjoy the benefits of both music and arts. Over a four year period, the government will provide the funding to a nationwide network of 121 music education hubs to try to get more young people to participate in music.

The funding will be administered by Arts Council England to music education hubs made up of local partnerships – including schools, local authorities and arts organisations – to give 5 to18 year olds greater access to musical opportunities. On the announcement, School Standards Minister Nick Gibb said “We’re investing more than £300 million over the next four years so that those opportunities are open to all, not just the privileged few.”

Inspiring Governance: register your vacancies

A new and free governor and trustee recruitment service officially launched in London on Monday 21 November to try to help tackle the significant challenges that many schools face when finding the right people to govern them. ‘Inspiring Governance’ is an online recruitment service, connecting volunteers with governing boards in schools and colleges.

If you have vacancies on your board, please register them here.

Categories
Governance

News for Governors

Please see the attached document (Word, 22KB) for the latest news for governors.

Categories
Governance

Updates to statutory guidance on the constitution of maintained schools governing bodies

The Department for Education (DfE) has published its updated statutory guidance on the constitution of governing bodies of maintained schools (external link). Key updates include:

  •  disclosure and Barring Service checks
  •  supplying information to the secretary of state about those involved in governance
  •  clarified information on governors’ access to training
  •  clarified information on parent governors

The new version of the guidance references the DfE’s Governance Competency Framework, which is expected to be published this autumn.

The guidance emphasises the role of the governing board in addressing both the training and development needs of individual governors.

The DfE also seek to clarify that parent governors have a valuable perspective to offer and are a good source of knowledge about the school. However, parental engagement is a separate activity for which the whole governing board is responsible.

Categories
Governance

Safeguarding

Your Head teachers should all have received the template polices listed below.

  • Safeguarding and child protection
  • Anti bullying
  • SRE
  • Drugs, alcohol and substance misuse
  • Intimate care
  • Managing allegations against other children
  • Online safety
  • Positive handling
  • Use of social media

Any queries please contact Jane Flynn, jane.flynn@haringey.gov.uk
 

Categories
Governance

Government launch ‘Schools that work for everyone’ consultation

The Education Secretary, Justine Greening, has announced a consultation (external link) which covered a range of proposals for creating an all-inclusive school system for the 21st century. The most publicised and controversial of these relate to grammar schools:

  • Allowing existing grammar schools to expand (dedicated funding of up to £50 million a year would be made available)
  • Permitting the establishment of new selective schools
  • Allowing existing non-selective schools to become selective
  • Require all selective schools to engage in outreach activities and prioritise the admission of pupils from lower income houses

In order to take advantage of these proposed freedoms, schools would have to meet specified conditions: for example, taking a proportion of pupils from lower income households, supporting a local non-selective or primary school, or ensuring that there are opportunities to join the selective school at different points in a pupil’s education.

There are also proposals to require universities and independent schools to provide support to state-funded schools, such as through sponsoring or setting up an academy.

The final section of the consultation relates to faith schools. The government is proposing to remove the restriction that new faith schools can admit a maximum of 50% of pupils on the basis of faith when oversubscribed. A variety of alternative proposals are posited, including placing an independent person who is of “different” or “no faith” on the governing board of new faith free schools.

The consultation is open until 12 December. 
 

Categories
Governance

Autumn timelines for schools and colleges: mandatory and useful information

The Department for Education publishes a timeline of forthcoming mandatory legal requirements (external link) to be implemented. This should help your governing board to plan ahead for the year. They also publish a timetable of other useful information. Both of these are broken down by school type.

The latest timelines were published on 15 September.