Head teachers offer feedback on the work of the Strategic Education Partnership

At the Head Teacher Forum on 22nd October, 2018, head teachers were introduced to Simon James, Deputy Director, Education Achievement and Inclusion, who outlined his key priorities, particularly in the areas of SEN and Inclusion.

They were then encouraged to offer their feedback on the work of the Strategic Education Partnership to date before hearing about schools formula funding from Wesley Guy, Head of Finance.

Seven months on from the inaugural Board meeting, co-chairs used a carousel activity to share what work they are doing in their sub-group to address their core priorities. Head teachers then considered whether the core priorities, set out at the launch in January 2018, are still the most pressing. They gave their views on what they saw as the strengths of the sub-groups are and where they thought their approach could be improved.

Wesley Guy gave a presentation on Schools Formula Funding up until 2019-20. He said that although funding per pupil is growing very slightly in cash terms, the increase does not take into account teachers’ pay and pension contribution rises. He highlighted that there were differences in how the cash would be allocated in future, with a higher proportion of the total going to areas with high levels of deprivation.

He drew attention to the fact that the cash increase in the high needs block is minimal in comparison to the steep rise in the number of children who secured an EHCP in 2017/18 – a rough proxy for growth in need.

Related documents:

• Presentation – 181122 HTF Simon James
• Presentation – 181122 HTF Schools Formula Funding WG