Bristol Schools Forum Filming Row – Chair Kicks Off At Public

Forum Chair said it felt ‘wrong’ for ‘volunteers’ in charge of the financial decision making over millions of pounds worth of school budgets to be filmed in public meeting

Bristol residents are being blocked from making recordings at a public meeting which covers education funding decisions worth millions of pounds at the council house.

At Bristol Schools Forum last night, a member of Democratic Services staff and Forum Chair Steve Hornsby, attempted to stop a member of the public filming. They first approached the member of the public ahead of the start of the meeting insisting filming was not allowed to take place. The pair then brought the issue to the attention of the Forum representatives.

Hornsby – who is Chair of the Trust Board at North Star 240° in Bristol – said: “I’m being advised that the rules are it’s not recordable like public meetings but it’s at the discretion of the meeting. So I’m going to put it to the vote with everybody and if you’re happy for it to be recorded with the camera and everything else then vote for that. And it not, then we won’t and we’ll just record it all in the normal way.”

The ‘normal’ way being minutes taken and published through Democratic Services and approved by Forum members at the next meeting.

The member of the public, who we have chosen not to identify, explained his disappointment at using “peer pressure” to stop the recording of the meeting.

He said: “Chair, it’s a matter of public right to attend public meetings and record. If you can bring me the rule that you’re relying on to disallow recording, I will happily stop. But you need to show me the rule.”

Later he added: “This is a public meeting which has a special definition in UK law. All public meetings members of the public are allowed to attend and record. You don’t need a special dispensation.”

Hornsby said: “What I propose is we go ahead, you record it and then the recording is embargoed until such time somebody can give me a professional advice.”

The member of the public agreed to embargo the recording until the end of the next working day to allow legal services time to respond to the issue.

Hornsby replied in an animated way: “I’m sorry, this is a meeting of people of volunteers who are coming together to try and help Bristol schools. It just feels wrong.”

Democratic Services Officer, Claudette Campbell said: “I think you can just take a vote on it Chair. It is not an ordinary meeting that follows the constitution of Bristol City Council, therefore Chair, Forum members are able to determine what happens and how the meeting is formulated. That’s what it says. It’s good practice to follow the constitution so we do. We have the meetings in public. We can choose it to be a meeting with minutes, the meeting agenda, the meeting reports that are published on the website. We give details of meetings so should anyone want to watch it when we’re doing Zoom they can do. If they want to make notes they can do. When we are in person they can take notes, they can come they can listen. Because the meeting is in public.

“In respect of recording, that is something extraordinary which happens with the business of the council where council members are making decisions as to the business of the council. Your scrutiny, your forum members who are scrutinising the business of the education department – I hope you don’t mind me saying that – Hannah and the finance related to it. So this, it is set out in the Schools Forum Operations and Guidance in respect of how we proceed.

“So if you are happy to be recorded, [redacted] can record. I can’t tell you what happens to the recording, what he does with the recording. I can’t say that I don’t know what medium it’s put out on. It’s for you as the Forum members to determine what you are comfortable with.”

Issues have been raised since the start of 2024 over public accessibility to Bristol Schools Forum meetings. In January this year, it became apparent that Zoom meetings could no longer be watched at a later date by the public on demand. This was something that was stopped from September 2023. On rare occasions, meetings would move back into the council house on College Green which would not be webcast. Bristol Schools Forum Membership lists Steve Hornsby, the current Forum Chair, as appointed to the position on 28 November 2023. Vice Chair Simon Eakins, was appointed on 24/09/2024.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) Schools Forum Operational and good practice guide March 2021 says that: ‘Schools forums are more than just consultative bodies. They also have an important role to play in approving certain proposals from their local authority and are therefore involved in the decision making process surrounding the use of public money at local level. As a result schools forums are required to be open to the public.

‘Furthermore papers, agendas and minutes must be publicly available well in advance of each meeting. It’s good practice that notification that the schools forum is a public meeting is included on the website and papers are published at least a week in advance. Local authorities should ensure that the websites are accessible and easy to find.’

School Forums have decision making responsibilities which can include the growth fund, school funding formulas and the movement of up to 0.5 per cent of funding from the Schools Block to other blocks – such as the High Needs Block.

We made no such agreement to not film the public meeting, nor hold it under a randomly decided embargo. The meeting is almost complete, with the last 15 minutes of the final agenda item missing.

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