West Berkshire Council leader apologises for offended heads – in cash clawback climb down

The Downs School will not have to pay any money back to West Berkshire Council – after a climbdown by the local authority.

Now the council has retracted the claim on nearly half a million pounds – and reduced the amount other schools in the district have to give back.

Last night’s full council meeting heard the lengthy retraction from council leader Jeff Brooks who said he and his team had visited five of the schools in question for further talks.

“The clawback of funds from schools that appear to have an excess of uncommitted reserves has been an area of great anxiety and concern to eight schools who are affected, five of which faced handing over a great deal of money to our High Needs Block which is £9m in deficit and that deficit is growing fast,” he said.

“In funding that amount of money, the council loses an estimated £360,000 annually that it might receive in interest; money we could use to deliver services.

“I would like to thank all those schools for receiving us with consideration and courtesy when they would probably like to have given us a piece of their mind!

“The passion they showed for their schools shone through in everything they said – their enthusiasm is immense and their ambition boundless – they are a credit to their children and their communities.”

He saids that no money will be clawed back from Springfield Primary School in Tilehurst.

“You can re-build your gazebo and fort, Mrs East and replace the fencing,” he said.

“Furthermore, there is £400,000 allocated in our capital programme to address your severe drainage issues and we know this is an estimate at this time.”

He said no money will be clawed back from the The Downs School, adding he hoped “that we can build a strong relationship between the head and governors”.

He said £1.5m will be clawed back from Brookfields School in Tilehurst.

“… but, Mrs Bernie, we will put your accessibility project, with a cost of over £600,000, into our capital programme as well as over £800,000 for new classrooms that can take 20 more children.

“You had those sums of money in your uncommitted reserves but you should not have had to find that money yourself – that is what this council is here to provide.

“That capital allocation will have to be approved in our budget setting in the new year but I know the administration will support these two schemes and I would hope all members will support them.”

He added there will be no clawback from Victoria Park Nursery School in Newbury, saying the leaking roof must be fixed.

There will be a very small clawback amount from Curridge Primary School, “but we will be listening to the head when we visit there next week and seeing what we can do to help the school”.

No money will be clawed back from Parsons Down in Thatcham, John Rankin in Newbury and Chaddleworth St Andrew’s and Shefford School.

“So that schools can prepare going forward I am making it clear that the clawback process will be undertaken annually,” Mr Brooks said.

“My advice is that you allocate your reserves as soon as you can.

“One thing that has become clear to me as a result of this review is that we need the ability to hear from all of our schools on a regular basis.

“So, I am announcing this evening that we will hold two meetings per year – our district/schools assembly – in January and October, where we will invite the headteacher and chair of governors of every one of our maintained schools to meet with us and discuss issues.

“This will enable us to have regular and healthy conversations that anticipate and respond to the many issues that we face together.”

He also apologised for offending heads with an earlier statement that he would “expect all headteachers in maintained schools across our district to want all schools across West Berkshire to do well and want to support each other”.

He said: “I know a lot of headteachers were upset by that sentence; but I went on to say: ‘No school is an island, and I remember how well headteachers supported each other when I was a governor – I feel sure that same sense of teamwork exists today.”.

“I had hoped that would have put my words into context but I have seen too many politicians hide behind that phrase ‘I was taken out of context’ and they seem unable to apologise as if apologising denotes weakness in their position.

“So, I do apologise if the heads were offended by those words. I did not mean to cause offence.

“None of us should be too important to say when they have got something wrong – everyone of us is a mortal and not a saint.

The Downs School appealed to the Department for Education (DfE) to intervene in the cash claw back row with West Berkshire Council which erupted this summer.

It said the council’s decision to demand £490,000 back from the school – much of it generated by fundraising efforts – was, and is, procedurally unfair.

The Downs School had claimed the ‘abrupt u-turn’ required it to turn around information, subject to incredibly short deadlines, on committed balances with no view or consideration to its three-year budget projections or salary commitments.

A lengthy letter was sent to the Government outlining the school’s grievance with the council, which infuriated schools in the district when they were told to return cash balances to the council in June this year – a year earlier than agreed.

The council is trying to raid school bank accounts for around £2.4m – so it can reduce a £9m debt in its budget for special needs education.