Stockport Governor Association

A summary on progress to date of The Early Years Funding Formula Review required by government to be in place by Sept 2010, was provided and discussed. This requires all local authorities (LAs) to provide a free entitlement to education for all 3 and 4 year olds, to a level of 15 hours per week for 38 weeks per year. All sectors, maintained and PVI (Private Voluntary and Independent), must be treated equally. It will mean that some existing nursery schools, who in the past have held unoccupied places, will have to ensure that all places are filled, as empty places will not carry future funding.

Good news was received by the Forum that school balances had fallen from £11.043millon to £7.863million. This means that education balances are now below the amount thought prudent for the local authority as a whole. A small clawback of £0.097million will occur from some schools who failed to make sufficient progress within the agreed rules.

The issue of Free School Meals (FSM), a subject raised at a previous forum, came back with a report on costs. It would appear that the cost of a FSM is
£1.70 as charged by Solutions SK (SSK) to the authority. Yet funding provided to schools per pupil is:
£1.08 secondary, £1.65 primary and £1.41 nursery. The shortfall, of the order of £0.250m is currently being made up from within LA accounts. Those schools that operate their own in-house catering receive no such subsidy and have to make up the shortfall from other school funds.

The Forum received information on the Diploma courses to be offered for secondary school pupils starting in September 2009. It was reported that the expected learner numbers had fallen from 250 to 164 pupils. It had been expected that 26 would take Construction, 105 take Creative and Media, 65 take Engineering and 52 Society Health and Development; all, except Creative and Media, are offered atStockport College. Creative and Media is being offered at a number of secondary schools in the borough. Should learner numbers fall below 15, then the course might not be financially viable.

An ongoing Special Educational Needs (SEN) sub-group review is still deep in discussion on an alternative funding regime. A further report will be made at the October meeting.