Minutes:
Liam Powell explained that he had been approached by a Multi Academy
Trust in the north-west of the county who wish to welcome in a school from the
north of the county. Liam said that the
MAT board wished to proceed but the school would introduce a deficit to the
Trust. Liam added that the ESFA need to
be satisfied that the Trust was not exposing itself to financial risk and the
school could manage its budget.
Liam said that the Trust was prepared to ask the local authority to
support financially, and it was important to demonstrate to the ESFA that all
options had been explored by the MAT regardless of the answer. Liam said that the historic deficit was not
helped by age range change for the school that wants to join the Trust and this was being managed and the issue of the two
buildings involved on the campus which had now been sorted. Liam said that the school had presented
different models for progressing this finance and if the lump sum for both
schools separately before they joined could have been continued then there
would have been no deficit but one of them was closed down. Liam said that alternatively the school could
have grown and this could have been another way to
manage the deficit and there had been delays in completing the organisation of
the campus which had been picked up by the school as well. Liam stated that the local authority had
provided everything it could financially so there was no question about that
but feel that there had been a historical injustice and the deficit needs to be
resolved.
Liam explained that the if the deficit cannot be resolved the next step
could be to approach the Secretary of State for either the money to be given to
clear the deficit or approval given for it to be paid afterwards under a
managed plan. Liam stated that the Trust
and school asked for him as the representative for LSH to raise with Schools
Forum. Liam and Jenny had spoken and
went through the history of the case and there are other things that the school
could have done historically as well to address this
but the deficit goes with the school and there was no other money in the local
authority to support with the deficit and was asked to raise this which he had.
As Chair of this meeting, Karen Allen said that Schools Forum do not
have role in this decision and the local authority’s policy had been clear for
some time that any deficits are only taken on by the local authority when the
school is sponsored and not in any other situations. Karen added that Schools Forum do not have a
role for looking at solutions to a deficit and there was not a fund, to
consider this would be inequitable to other schools in this situation who have
had to carry deficits with them on conversion previously and the comment that
the MAT needs to protect itself would open the door to putting the local
authority into a very difficult position because they too do not have funds to
resolve and if they did this for one school they would have do the same for
other schools that were in that position in the future.
Karen thanked Liam for bringing it to Schools Forum but reiterated there
was no role for the Schools Forum in this discussion and hopefully services the
purpose of what Liam had been asked to do and noted that a discussion had taken
place.
Jane Lennie
commented that in 2016 this was presented to the Secretary of State, but the
Government changed and had not been referred to again.