Schools' forum

About the Schools Forum 

It is made up of representatives from: 

• schools and academies 
• non-school organisations such as nursery and 16-19 education providers

The forum is consulted about areas including:  

• changes to the local funding formula (the local authority makes the final decision) 
• proposed changes to the operation of the minimum funding guarantee 
• changes to or new contracts affecting schools, such as school meals 
• arrangements for pupils with special educational needs, in pupil referral units and in early years provision 

The forum decides:  

• how much funding may be retained by the local authority within the dedicated schools grant (eg for providing an admissions service or providing additional funding for growing schools) 
• any proposed carry forward of deficits on central spend from one year to the next  
• proposals to de-delegate funding from maintained primary and secondary schools (eg for staff supply cover, insurance, behaviour support) 
• changes to the scheme of financial management 

Schools representation

The forum includes representatives from: 

• maintained nursery schools 
• maintained primary schools 
• maintained secondary schools 
• maintained special schools 
• maintained pupil referral units 
• mainstream academies (including free schools)
• special academies (including free schools) 
• alternative provision academies (including free schools) 
• post-16 education providers  

The number of representatives from each type of school should reflect how many pupils they represent. 

Schools Forum meetings

Schools Forum meeting dates for the remainder of the academic year 2023/24 are:

• Thursday 25 May, 2pm to 4pm
• Thursday 13 July, 2pm to 4pm

Documents and reports

We regularly publish all documents and reports from Schools Forum meetings, available for up to two years.

View documents

Schools Forum vacancies

Secondary academy senior leadership representatives

There are currently two vacancies for secondary academy senior leadership representatives. The local authority has asked the secondary academies to let us know who will be taking up those two positions.

Maintained primary governor representative

In March 2024, the term of office of a maintained primary governor is due to end. Maintained schools are community schools or voluntary-aided (church) schools, and not academies or free schools.

Maintained primary governors have been invited, via their chairs of governors, to either agree to the current maintained primary governor undertaking a second term of office (four years) or to submit nominations to join the Forum by Thursday 8 February 2024. If there are more applications than vacancies, there will be an election.

The following schools are already represented on the forum, so governors from these cannot apply:

• Canonbury
• Edventure Collaborative Federation – Montem and Drayton Park
• Federation of Rotherfield and Newington Green
• Prior Weston
• Thornhill
• The Learning Quarter Federation – Hugh Myddelton and Winton
• St Mary’s Church of England Primary

Special academy representative

In March 2024, the term of office of a special academy representative is also due to end. The senior leadership of the two special academies have been asked to inform the LA if the current representative will carry out another term of office or if there will be a change of representation.

Contact Jane Wright (or Governor Services).