Although not a consultation, the government has published a White Paper, ‘Opportunity for all: strong schools with great teachers for your child’, followed by the Schools Bill. The proposed legislation sets out a series of reforms to the education, and the White Paper, preceding the bill, also recognises that the school system is fragmented and acknowledged that councils have a continued role at the centre of local education systems, with powers to match their duties around place-planning and ensuring pupils out of school return to the classroom as soon as possible. The council, including our Cabinet Member, Cllr Zena Brabazon, would like to begin what will be a series of conversations with you about the way forward for our Haringey family of schools. In our first conversation, date, and time to be confirmed shortly, we will set out our vision and thoughts and listen to your views, hopes and concerns about the White Paper/Schools bill and implications for our Haringey’s schools. Details on the first conversation will be sent to you this week.
The SEND Green Paper ‘Right support, right place, right time’ was released in April 2022 following the extensive review of the 2014 reforms. Responses are due by 22 July 2022. Mary Jarrett, Head of SEND, will be holding an engagement on the paper for Heads and CoGs to gather views. The date is likely to be 5 or 13 July for a 90-minute session. Further details will follow shortly.
The government has finally published a consultation on the National Funding Formula (NFF). This follows on from consultation in 2021 (which the Council responded to, setting out concerns about the impact of a NFF on our schools’ funding) which focused on the principle of an NFF. This current consultation focuses on the detail. Moving to a direct NFF requires a change in legislation to allow the Secretary of State to determine schools’ funding allocations directly. This forms part of the schools Bill which was introduced in Parliament on 11 May 2022. Further information on the consultation will be published in this newsletter and through the Assistant Director for Schools and learning. The closing date for the consultation is 9 Sept 2022 which means that we will need to gather our response quickly. The matter will also be discussed at the last Schools Forum of the academic year in early July.