Agenda item

Correction to Minutes

The word ‘councillor’ in item 8 of the last meeting’s Minutes should read ‘counsellor’.

Minutes Agreed

Everyone agreed the Minutes of the last meeting

Matters Arising (Updates about things mentioned in the Minutes of the last meeting)

- Northants Rights and Equalities Council (“NREC”) – Anjona mentioned threats to legal advice funding through cuts to legal aid and changes to funding given out by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. NREC’s Annual General Meeting coming up soon would include Advice UK. NREC has been encouraging people to sign up to the 38 degrees campaign.

- Sikh Community Centre and Youth Club – Cllr Patel and officers at Northants County Council are looking to change the on-street parking arrangements in light of the concerns raised by the community.

- Northants Association of Supplementary Schools – Alaa said that Northants County Council had notified the association that it would end all funding to the association from March 2012.

Anjona said she had reviewed the Equality Impact Assessment done by the county council and it acknowledged that the negative impact – or harm – which could result from the decision to cut funding, could not be mitigated by the county council. She said that she felt this was helpful to argue against the cuts.

Anjona asked that this Forum give a view about the cuts.

The Forum members asked for more information to help them understand the issues. Cllr Patel referred to the fact he is a member of Northants County Council: he said that in his view the supplementary schools play an important role and his understanding was that they were told two years ago to form an association and expect the funding to stop in two years time. Cllr Patel said that currently the county council had confirmed that the funding will stop from April 2012 and that it is willing to help the association develop a business plan which should help them to apply for funding elsewhere and would help them to get discounts on using schools premises

Representatives of the Northants Association of Supplementary Schools then explained that the county council’s funding that to date has paid for teachers and buildings is all due to stop. For several reasons, the association had asked the county council to provide funding through to the end of the school year rather than to end it mid year. These included: having the full school year would help the association to adjust its running and look to obtain match-funding – particularly as it believed it had only received a months’ notice of the current funding coming to an end because N Booth at the county council had told them she had been waiting on legal advice before giving them notice of the funding now ending; also there are some students studying for GCSE and A level exams.

There seemed to be some disagreement between the county council and the association as to what arrangements should have happened over the past two years. The association representatives felt let down by the county council.

The association’s view was that if there was no solution found to close the gap in funding for the period March to July 2012, the schools would close. The main barrier to their continuation was that £10/hour for buildings as now all the schools meet in mainstream schools.

It was noted that around 12 of the 18 schools serve young people in Northampton borough itself, with around 1,500 young people due to be affected by the cuts in funding. The schools work contributes to their integration into mainstream schools, reducing the burden on schools, and contributes to the success of the mainstream schools as the young people’s exam performance is included in formal assessment of their pupil progress. The schools also contribute to community cohesion, foster good relations and mutual understandings between and within community groups in relation to culture, ethnicity and faith.

It was also noted that public bodies, including Northampton Borough Council, have identified the supplementary schools as a unique and valuable group to have links with to help them with meeting their duties in relation to diversity, equality, consultation and promoting electoral registration. Various meetings and projects had taken place involving them e.g. by the museum and to create exhibitions that could promote cross-cultural and intergenerational understandings.

Thomas Hall said that Northampton Borough Council makes no funding contribution to the supplementary schools. He anticipated that there would be some grants funding available to apply for later in the year along with all other applicants. He noted that to date the panel of community and council representatives had taken an approach of not funding activities which more properly came within the remit of the county council. Thomas further noted that there is an argument that the funding decision-makers should consider the impact on the community of their decisions and the financial pressures on the Borough Council too.

Thomas said that there was not much the Borough Council could do. It might be able to look into premises at a lower cost than the association paid currently but it would not be able to offer a nil cost as the budget did not allow for this. The venues he was thinking of were community centres. These were in the process of being put into the hands of community groups to run who would be responsible in future for setting room hire rates.

Morcea said that she felt going into community centres would be a backwards step and not practical.

Action Agreed: John Rawlings, Community Co-Chair of the Forum would write on behalf of the Forum, to Northants County Council to express concern at the loss of Northants County Council funding which it was understood would lead to the closure of 12 school in Northampton. He would ask Northants County Council to consider maintaining the grant for buildings to cover the remainder of the academic year to July 2012.

Action: Representatives from the Northants Association of Supplementary Schools to give a presentation about the schools at the next meeting of this Forum in case other organisations would like to get involved in their work.