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Report to: |
East Sussex SACRE
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Date of meeting:
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16 June 2022 |
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By: |
Carrie Beech ESCC Adviser to SACRE
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Title: |
SACRE Budget Update 2022 - 2023
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Purpose: |
To advise the East Sussex SACRE of the budget position for 2022 - 2023 |
Recommendations:
1. LA funding for SACRE:
This financial year the allocation from Children’s Services for the work of SACRE is £15,000 to reflect the work required to support the revision and implementation of the Local Agreed Syllabus.
2. Budget Plan and update for April 2022 to March 2023
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Area of work |
Budget allocation |
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Specialist
Advice to SACRE 8 days (Claire Ramalli) |
£3,200 |
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SLE
support for engaging primary schools and primary networks 4 days
(Claire Rivers) |
£1,400 |
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Partnership with RE today to provide: · support for development and implementation of new Agreed Syllabus · licensing costs · CPD launch event · Development of KS4 core curriculum
(Split total over two years so same second invoice due in May 2022)
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£8,171 (reduced from £9,250 as we don’t pay VAT) |
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NASACRE annual subscription fee
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£105
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CPD for schools and RE Today support package – reduced rate for 3 years · Termly webinars 3 x Secondary and 3x Primary · Annual conference 1 x Secondary 1 x Primary
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£4,842 (per annum) To be offset by the Teaching School budget of £1,550) therby reducing to £3,292 |
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Total |
£16,168 |
The challenge with this budget plan is that it puts SACRE £1168 over budget. There are two ways of managing this overspend and issues/questions for discussion:
(i) Make this clear to colleagues in Children’s Services finance and a case made to cover this additional spend because it is driving quality and impacting positively on both RE and collective worship in all schools and academies in East Sussex.
(ii) Look at opportunities for charging some of the costs to schools such as the termly CPD through the networks and the annual conference for MLs. The termly webinars will be online and therefore the costs are covered through the package of support with RE Today.
(iii) The current budget only covers the cost of the delivery of the conference the speaker and facilitator. If this is held in person then that would incur venue and catering costs and these would have to be calculated and recharged to schools. Planning for these events need to be put in place soon so that we can be assured of the best value and the widest engagement.
(iv) The Chair of SACRE was keen to run another pupil conference, as we have in the past with great success and there is no budget to support this at the current time.
(v) Anticipating the budget for next year the RE Today costs of £4842 for the partnership provision will be ongoing but the licensing costs will have been paid in full and licenses will last until 2027. It would be beneficial to agree an enhanced budget for SACRE remaining at £15000 a year from Children’s Services to allow for some development work and some contingency. SACRE needs to consider how this case will be made.
3. Funds Held by St Mark’s Teaching School: £1550
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Area of Work |
Budget allocated |
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Subsidise RE Today support for schools |
£1550 (2022 – 2023 budget plan) Funds held at Polegate Primary School |
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4. Other contributions from SLES:
· Support for Secondary networks from Secondary Board
· Support for SLES representation on SACRE and support for Schools Working Group and raising profile and quality of RE Teaching
· Primary and Secondary Boards and Teaching Schools - allocation for SLEs (Specialist Leaders in Education) for school-to-school support
5. Understanding Christianity (UC) subsidy explained:
With regards to Understanding Christianity under Syllabus model B, there is now a positive change around the interpretation of eligibility for the allocation of funding. We can now engage the following schools within the UC subsidy, Foundation, Academy and Free schools, this would be subject to an individual school check which we would carry out.
This makes a significant difference when engaging with Syllabus model B, as the original outline proposal was based on 44 community schools taking part with the UC training and receiving a 71% subsidy, this could be increased to 122 schools, which leaves the 44 Voluntary controlled and the 22 Voluntary aided schools outside of the subsidy. However, if these schools wished to engage with UC we would support them with a subsidy provided by RE Today.
Costs for Understanding Christianity:
· The funded schools would pay £60 towards the total cost of £210 for the training and their UC folder.
· The unfunded schools would pay £60 towards the total cost of £210 for the training + £75, which is the cost of their folder, the remaining £75 would be subsidised by RE Today, making the total cost to each school £135.
6. Launch Event Options for purchasing the schemes of work (optional):
The schools will have the opportunity to purchase the scheme of work for the following:
· Primary schools – Gross cost is £300 applied discount £140 = net cost of £160
· Secondary schools – Gross cost £165 applied discount £77 = net cost of £88
Contact: Carrie Beech, Local Authority Adviser