Agenda item

To consider a report by the Head of Education on the above.

(Copy attached)

A report was submitted by the Head of Education requesting the Forum to confirm the continuation of the Education Finance Working Group in order to hold a discussion in accordance with the Cabinet's decision at its meeting on 19 February’2015, namely:  

(a)  To accept the proposals of the Schools’ Funding Forum for delivering £952,000 of savings from the schools budget in 2015/16 and comply with the funding promise for schools, using "Model B" to reduce the primary sector teaching staff allocation by £60,131 and to reduce the secondary sector teaching staff allocation by £25,771.

(b)  To request the Schools’ Funding Forum to continue to review education services and organisation in order to discover the remaining savings target beyond the £952,000 for 2015/16, and to await its recommendation regarding how the entire £4.3m could be realised over the period from 2015/16 - 2018/19.

(c)  To ask the Cabinet Member for Education to encourage individual school governing bodies to consider how they could use their schools’ balances as part of a package to address their financial deficit in a planned way.

Reference was made to the spreadsheet attached to the report that summarised what had been discussed by the Working Group thus far.

In terms of the cuts, a target of £4.3m was set in order to get the Education Service to maximise the efficiency savings that could be squeezed from the education system prior to proceeding to cuts.   It was stressed that the line between efficiency savings and cuts was difficult to define in the field of education.

The Forum was requested to confirm the membership of the Working Group and they were reminded of the members from amongst the Headteachers in the secondary and primary sector:

Neil Foden, Alun Llwyd, Eifion Jones and Dewi Lake (Secondary)

Owain Lemin Roberts, Ifan Llŷr Rees, Geraint Evans and Sianelen Pleming (Primary)

It had been suggested to GYDCA that they discussed a nomination to succeed Sianelen Pleming on the Working Group as a result of her intention to retire.   

The Head of Education reported that the challenge was to be more efficient whilst working towards the savings of £4.3m. The percentage of service cuts was approximately 6 / 7% compared to some services who were looking for approximately 30%.  It would be necessary for the Working Group to conduct difficult discussions by considering the basic principles and focusing on the best possible provision for children and young people.  

The Cabinet Member for Education added that the Council’s Cabinet was conducting a series of workshops with all council members to discuss the savings process and the Education Service would be under consideration on 6 July 2015.  At the end of the process, it was proposed for transparency to consult with the residents of Gwynedd in September/October regarding the implementation of the possible cuts.     

A headteacher suggested that the Working Group would have to look at the complete picture and would it not be better to call it the ‘Education and Schools Rationalisation Working Group’.  

Resolved:       (a)        To accept and note the contents of the report.

                        (b)       To confirm the Membership of the Education Finance Working Group as follows:

Chair of the Schools’ Budget Forum - (Mr Godfrey Northam)

Cabinet Member for Education - (Cllr. Gareth Thomas)

4 Primary Heads (Owain Lemin Roberts, Ifan Llŷr Rees, Geraint Evans                and one nomination by GYDCA (Primary)

4 Secondary Heads (Neil Foden, Alun Llwyd, Eifion Jones and Dewi Lake)

Head of Special School   (Donna Roberts, Ysgol Pendalar)

Diocese representative (Rev. Canon Robert Townsend)

Observers:     Chair of the Services Scrutiny Committee (Cllr. Peter Read)

                        »«Vice-chair of the Services Scrutiny Committee

                                                                                                (Cllr. Beth Lawton)

(c)        That a meeting of the Working Group takes place on 17 September 2015, if this does not conflict with the Secondary Strategic meeting.