The information below has been provided by colleagues from the Nottingham City Council Education Department.
HR Update from Carol McCrone – dated 3rd July 2020
Attached below is the latest HR update from Carol McCrone, which contains important information about quarantining restrictions for staff resturning from abroad. Please read and disseminate to colleagues:
HR Update from Carol McCrone – dated 11th June 2020
Carol McCrone has provided this update for schools:
Covid19 Testing
Flow chart for managers, detailing Covid19 testing arrangements:
Please find attached details of how to access COVID19 testing for your staff through the Council’s triaging system:
Nottingham City Customer Hub
Just a quick reminder of our customer hub number – 0115 915 5555 – this can be passed to any citizens with any queries about council services and other general issues, including information about food banks and how to access them if they are self-isolating. Information is also available on the City Council Coronavirus web page here: https://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/coronavirus
PPE
The Local Authority are currently working to provide consistent guidance regarding PPE in schools, and we will circulate this to you as possible. In the meantime if any schools have an urgent requirement for PPE, please contact Lesley Saxton at Lesley.Saxton@nottinghamcity.gov.uk.
Extended deadline for 2020/21 budget setting
Schools Finance are extending the 2020/21 budget setting deadlines, with a view to reducing pressure on schools in the current circumstances.
Where possible, Schools Finance recommend that schools aim to submit a budget plan by 22nd May. This budget can then be used for the calculation of the June cash advance, helping ensure you are provided with adequate cash in the bank to cover projected non-pay costs. However, schools that feel this will be unachievable are able to work to an alternative deadline of 17th July. It would be helpful if you could advise us at schools.finance@nottinghamcity.gov.uk if this is going to be the case.
We appreciate the challenges of budget setting in the current circumstances. Initial draft budget plans can be refined at a later point once schools are in a position to give them more focus and schools are able to submit draft budget plans that do not yet have governing body approval.
Summer Term 2020 Early Years Funding
The Department for Education has set out its expectation that local authorities should continue to pass on the funding received for early years entitlements to schools and providers even though children are not able to attend due to coronavirus. Initially we will fund schools for the summer term based on indicative budgets. Academies will receive an estimate payment in April based on 100% of the summer term indicative allocation.
Our aim is that final funding for the summer term as accurately as possible reflects the funding your school would have received without the disruption of coronavirus. We will carry out a summer term funding adjustment once we are in a position to obtain data to base this on. Below, we outline our intended approach under 2 scenarios according to whether schools re-open during the summer term or not.
Scenario 1 – Schools re-open during the summer term
Under this scenario we intend to open the Capita early years portal for a late headcount task once schools are fully open. Schools will be able to claim a full term of funding for any pupils on roll before the end of the summer term.
Scenario 2 – Schools do not open at all during the summer term
Under this scenario we will use a combination of spring and autumn pupil data to create a theoretical list of pupils who would have attended in the summer term. We will provide a full term of funding for any pupil on the school’s spring 2020 and autumn 2020 headcount data who would have been in the eligible date of birth range in summer term 2020. This means the finalisation of summer term funding will be calculated in parallel with the autumn term funding adjustments.
If you have any queries about this approach, please get in touch via school.funding@nottinghamcity.gov.uk.
Education Psychology
Attached is an email from our Educational Psychology Team and some support for you, parents and children and young people:
- NCC Education Psychology Service – letter to schools
- Nottingham City EPS Coronavirus support for settings
- Nottingham City EPS – Coronavirus support for parents
- Emotional wellbeing support strategies for CYP
Guidance around using social media and WhatsApp
Attached is some guidance around using social media and WhatsApp to communicate with parents, carers and young people during this time:
- WhatsApp guidance v1.1
- Social media advice
- Data Protection Advice for using social media to process data with citizens during the Corona virus pandemic v 5 (005)
FAQ’s
As we are now having regular contact with many of you, we have set up a schools FAQ page. This will be updated regularly, and attachments featured on this page will also be available there.
Early Years
- The Early Years Team have also set up a page with information specific to 0 – 5’s and the link is: https://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/earlyyears/early-years/covid-19-we-will-update-this-page-daily/
Call for evidence – deadline 31 May 2020
The House of Commons Select Committee on Education has set up an inquiry to look at how the outbreak of Coronavirus is affecting all aspects of the education sector and children’s social care system and to scrutinise how the Department for Education (DfE) is dealing with the situation. The inquiry has launched a call for evidence to examine both short term impacts, such as the effects of school closures and exam cancellations, as well as longer-term implications particularly for the most vulnerable children. The call for evidence closes on 31 May 2020.
Read the news story: The impact of COVID-19 on education and children’s services
Read the call for evidence: The impact of COVID-19 on education and children’s services
Nottingham City Council employees – critical worker list
For information, attached is a list of NCC staff roles who have been classed as critical workers – in case this is useful for any of your conversations with parents:
Letter from Catherine Underwood
Attached is a letter from Catherine Underwood, Corporate Director of People, addressed to all Head Teachers and MAT CEOs. This follows the recent letter from Vicky Ford, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families (also attached), which outlines the expectations of schools and settings to support all vulnerable children and their families.
Letter to Parents/Carers
Health and Safety
You may be interested in seeing the Coronavirus Health and Wellbeing toolkit which has been developed for schools. I have also attached updated guidance on who can be in schools if they are in, or live with someone who is in, one of the two risk categories:
David Thompson has created a useful checklist for schools staying partially open:
Risk Assessments
School funding: exceptional costs associated with coronavirus (COVID-19)
The DfE has now published guidance on the financial support they will put in place for exceptional costs associated with coronavirus:
The above guidance covers details of the specific types of costs that will be covered and the maximum limits that schools will be able to claim up to. In summary, the identified costs relate to:
• Increased premises related costs
• Support for free school meals for eligible children who are not attending schools, where costs are not covered by the FSM national voucher scheme
• Additional cleaning costs
Further guidance on the process for claiming will be published by the DfE in June. The LA schools finance team will be in touch with maintained schools to notify them of what coding should be used to record any such exceptional costs.
Alternative Provision Costs during the Covid-19 situation
If a school or LA has commissioned SEND provision or Alternative Provision (AP) there is an expectation that schools continue to fund any such provision during the Covid-19 crisis and that this should be funded from school budgets, top up funding or other funding sources already identified in schools.
The additional funding available for exceptional costs does not cover ongoing AP cost.
The DfE guidance relating to funding of exceptional costs during the crisis can be viewed in full here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-schools/school-funding-exceptional-costs-associated-with-coronavirus-covid-19-for-the-period-march-to-july-2020#additional-costs-covered-by-the-fund
and states “where schools pay top-up or other funding for pupils attending alternative provision (AP), or pay for other SEND or AP services, we expect these payments to continue so that teachers and other staff can be paid in accordance with their existing employment contracts. If placements and services for the summer term have not yet been agreed, schools should fund on the basis of previous patterns of placements and commissioning.”
The LA had already committed to fund any commissioned provision through this academic year or until the previously identified end point for all children with SEND or in LA commissioned provision including those who have been permanently excluded. We continue to work with partners and providers to ensure that suitable provision is available where possible and children continue to be safeguarded and monitored.
Action for Young Carers
Action for Young Carers have been in touch about the support they continue to offer to young carers – through phone calls and WhatsApp, as well as a hardship fund to support families who might be struggling and volunteers who are prepared to shop, walk dogs or just make a call. Whilst young carers are at home, their caring roles may significantly increase. The attached referral form has details on where to send any referral and the team have asked us to let you know their waiting list has significantly reduced so they may be able to offer an assessment in a week or two.