Hampshire Governors' Representative Group
Budget Meeting - Notes of meeting
Date 2 December 1999
Time 6.00 pm
Venue The Professional Centre,
Winchester
Present Ian Chrystie Fleet area
Sylvia Vine Havant area
Martina Powell New Forest area
Cynthia Hicks Winchester area
Robin Gray Fleet area
John Mason Winchester area
Rob Thompson - HT Henry Tyndale
Steven Steer-Smith - HT Icknield special
Lesley Morffew - HT The Mountbatten
David Jones - Acting HT Frogmore Community
David Musty - HT Cupernham Junior
Apologies Vernon Petherick
John Brailsford
Jim Watt
In
Attendance Roger Mead HCC
Action
1 Education Budget Prospects 2000/2001
Standards Fund - Roger Mead gave details of
one element of Standards Funding: That
relating to "The provision of administrative
support for small schools (primary less than
200; secondary less than 600)." This
comprised £800k from central government but
required matching funding from the LEA-
necessitating a top slicing of the budget.
Thus, all schools would lose: we estimated
approximately £1000: to provide funding for
a small number of schools. The suggestion
was that Hampshire would not be bidding for
this element of standards funding. HGRG
members agreed with the proposal as it was
difficult to see what deficiencies there
were in small schools admin support that
required addressing by ring fenced funding.
We felt that the money could easily be more
appropriately spent. The anomaly that a
school with 599 (199) pupils might end up
with significantly more funding than one
with 601 (201) pupils was noted. There was
also the more general comment that the
increase in ring-fenced standards funding
was destroying LMS and was insulting to
governors who, in reality, were quite able
to decide how to use funds given them.
2 Headteacher Conference Presentations
Secondary Schools
First a general point. The trend over
recent years that the secondary sector
budgets are reduced, in real terms, should
cease. Too many schools are now in deficit;
staff are being made redundant; class sizes
are increasing; ultimately, despite the best
efforts of staff, standards will fall and
will cost far more to put right.
A more specific point refers to inclusions.
The new inclusion policy will fail if it is
not adequately resourced. Schools'
abilities to deal with more disruptive
pupils will be compromised by the currently
increasing class sizes; parents will
complain more about class disruption and
demand that disruptive pupils be excluded;
there is an increased administrative load
associated with new exclusion requirements;
linking Hts' appraisal and pay to "results"
might also make underfunded exclusion less
likely to succeed.
Primary Schools
Despite the comments about secondary schools
above we do not wish to see primary school
funding fall. We were particularly
impressed by the deficiencies between the
needs-led funding model and reality and
would specifically support this sectors
requirements for MAST funding. There is
also a dire need for more ICT equipment and
training in primary schools.
Special Schools
We were shocked by the disparity between
Hampshire's per pupil funding of just over
£7k and the national average (some £1300
greater). This surely cannot be allowed to
continue. Specific points we identified
are: the necessity for sickness cover for
support staff and the implementation of the
funding levels defined in Circular 11/90.
There needs to be an acceptance that current
inclusion policies will change the
"case-mix" in special schools in that they
will have a greater percentage of more
difficult pupils.
3 HGRG budget priorities 2000/2001
Governor Services
2
There has been a 25% increase in the number
of governors in Hampshire (an additional
2,000) and there is currently a waiting list
of over 6 months for initial governor
training. This delay is unacceptable
(especially as the chairman has just gone
into print saying that all new governors
should attend such training). In addition,
the increased responsibilities being loaded
onto governors will generate a need for much
more support and training. There is also
likely to be increased turnover of governors
as volunteers decide that they cannot cope
with their new duties. The current Governor
Services budget needs to be significantly
increased to address this.
Coda
You will have noticed that each of the four
sections above requires that Hampshire spend
more on education. Unless more can be found
from within the education budget we are
asking that money be found from elsewhere.
We accept that, if none is available from
with the total county budget, council tax
must increase.
We would propose that the electorate, who
have been bombarded by "education,
education, education" will accept a
significant increase if it is accompanied by
detailed explanations as to why - especially
that central government have promised but
not delivered - and that Hampshire intends
to remain in the forefront of those
supporting education. This year is also the
right time as it is not an election year
(not that we would suggest that councillors'
decisions about something as important as
education would be swayed by the proximity
of such decisions to an election).
We believe that is really is time that a
concerted attack was mounted on behalf of
education and HGRG will support the LEA and
the Council should they wish to demonstrate
their belief in investing in our future.
3
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