Agenda item

[Report of the Assistant Director for Schools and Learning. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Children and Families.The Borough's secondary

community schools currently have PANs (Published Admission Numbers) divisible by 27 but it is expected that the emerging National Schools Funding Formula (NSFF) will be based on secondary school intakes of 30 and a funding ration close to the national average. the Haringey secondary school intake needs to come in to line with other local authorities to prevent Haringey secondary schools being financially disadvantaged by the continuation of historical practices.

The Cabinet Member for Children and families introduced the report which was proposing, for consultation, a move to bigger class sizes of 30 for secondary schools, to meet the emerging school funding formula criteria for 2018/19 and which would allow the Council to provide additional school places, limiting expensive capital cost in the future.

RESOLVED

1.    To note the twofold reasons for seeking to carry out consultation on the  adjustment of  the PANs of the Council’s community secondary schools:

1.1)     Preventing the Council’s secondary community schools from suffering a financial disadvantage when the new National Schools Funding Formula (NFF) – based on secondary school intakes of class sizes of 30 – is implemented; and

1.2)  Enabling the Council’s community secondary schools to provide additional year 7 places to accommodate a projected increase in pupil place demand between 2018 and 2025 without the need for the expansion of any single (or more) secondary school(s). 

2.    To agree to consultation being carried out between November and December 2016 on proposed adjustments to the Council’s community secondary school PANs, as set out in paragraph 4.1, to take effect from admission year 2018/2019, which would help ensure that the Council’s community secondary schools can maximise financial conditions by securing classes of 30 to reflect the broad national picture.  Such a move also allows provision of further additional year 7 places which will address the projected deficit of year 7 places from 2018 as set out by current projections and illustrated in the graph at Figure 1 to this report.

Reasons for decision

This report recommends the commencement of consultation (November 2016) on adjustments to the PANs of the Council’s community secondary schools.  Table 1 below sets out the current and proposed PAN for each community secondary school.

            Table 1: Current and proposed PANs for Haringey’s secondary community schools

These proposed adjustments are primarily a response to an emerging national funding formula that will mean that local adjustments historically made to allow our secondary schools to operate based on class sizes of 27 will be removed, and further that the NFF will be based on secondary school intakes of class sizes of 30 putting the Council’s secondary schools at a funding disadvantage.

This consultation will allow us to gather views from key stakeholders on whether we should proceed with this move.  Schools other than community schools will also be invited to set out their views although these schools (free schools, academies and foundation schools) will be considering their own positions in relation to the NFF and the impact for them if they remain at PANs wholly divisible by 27.

In addition to the financial imperative for community secondary schools of a move to class sizes of 30, such a change would also allow us to increase the number of year 7 places without the need for costly capital expansion works at one or more secondary schools.  This would meet the need for additional year 7 places to address rising cohorts from 2018.

The risk of not moving our secondary schools to class sizes broadly based on 30 is the financial impact of a national funding formula for which no local adjustment to address this smaller class size can be made.  Without this change we would also need to consider how to provide additional year 7 places to meet rising demand from larger primary cohorts that have already begun moving into the secondary phase.  Any expansion works would not only need significant capital costs, but further would result in additional classes of 27 in one or more of our secondary schools which would exacerbate the issue for those school(s) that are expanded of operating with class sizes of 27.

The risk of moving our PANs to those proposed, which are wholly divisible by 30 and which are broadly seen everywhere across London, England and Wales is the potential concern of school staff about the resultant increased workload (e.g. planning for and marking work for a class of 30 instead of 27) and possible strike or other action as a result of that objection.

A further report to Cabinet in April 2017 will set out the results of the consultation and make a final recommendation on whether or not to proceed with adjustments to PANs. 

Alternative options considered

No alternative options have been considered at this stage.  This report seeks to proceed to consultation with stakeholders to gather views on adjustments to PANs which will support financial viability for our schools once a NFF is introduced. 

Cabinet will consider a further report in April 2017 which will allow a final decision based on the outcomes of the consultation and all other material considerations.