Councillor Meg Davis, Cabinet member for Children and Learning, introduced the report
Before Councillor Davis introduced the report, the Leader reminded Cabinet that the Council had a statutory duty to provide education for all school-age children in the borough. He recalled that during the early years of the previous decade due to the steady decline in the birth rate the borough found itself with a surplus of some 2,500 school places. The Government of the day obliged all authorities with high vacancies to reduce their capacity and at that time a number of schools were closed, but since then the birth rate had climbed again and, along with other external pressures, the position had changed significantly – not only locally, but across London – to such an extent that drastic action was now required in order to ensure that no child was left without a school place.
It was in this context that the report before Members had been drafted.
Councillor Davis thanked the Leader for that overview and added that Havering had seen an increase of over 33% in the number of births in families resident in the Borough between calendar years 2002 and 2013. Havering residents were choosing to start or/and increase their family more than other London borough, in fact the ONS live birth data for 2013 showed that all other London boroughs experienced a drop in their birth rate from 2012 to 2013 apart from Havering which saw a 4% increase. Many London boroughs, having already experienced the increase in birth rate, were now seeing it plateau, but Havering was still at the early stages of its increase in the birth rate and therefore implementing the proposals so that local residents who were choosing to start or/and expand their family would have a local primary and then a secondary school place to send their children to was timely and imperative. An expansion programme had already begun and in 2013/14 the authority had created 10 permanent forms of entry (FE) in Primary schools together with 525 temporary places to cover short-term pressures for primary age pupils. In total 21 primary schools had expanded.
The number of Primary age pupils was expected to continue rising significantly from 20,374 in 2014/15, to 24,278 in 2019/20, which was more than 3,000 extra pupils over the next five years. There would therefore be a need to continue to make new provision available for these local children in most planning areas on both a permanent and temporary basis.
As those pupils advanced toward needing secondary education the authority’s current surplus of places in the secondary sector would be eroded and surpassed. Havering would exceed its overall Secondary places (in all year groups) around 2018/19 but was projected to exceed its Year 7 capacity sooner; in 2016/17.
There were currently 3,248 places available in Havering for Year 7 pupils. The local authority would begin the process of planning additional capacity across the borough for the projected increase in secondary pupil numbers through Phase Three of its expansion programme.
The rise in demand meant that the Council needed to do two things:
1. Find ways to absorb the immediate extra demand for places, while protecting the Borough’s excellent reputation for good schools – which was already well underway.
2. Plan for a longer term growth in pupil numbers, which meant creating more capacity in the Havering school system.
The report sought Cabinet’s approval to an approach to managing the forecast increase in early years, primary, secondary and SEN pupil numbers beyond the current Phase 2 of the Council’s Programme of Primary School Expansions.
The recommendations took account of the very wide resident, parent and stakeholder consultation outcomes, the Council’s agreed Commissioning Plan for Education Provision 2015/16 - 2019/20, updated pupil forecasts and other related developments.
Approval of the recommendations would enable officers to undertake consultation with stakeholders including the encouragement of new Free Schools - where appropriate - and ensuring value for money as part of the Council’s strategy for ensuring that there were sufficient school places to meet the assessment of likely future demands.
Officers would also be authorised to commission detailed feasibility work to assess, appraise and prioritise the capital implications and to firm-up specific proposals for final decision by March 2016.
Reasons for the decision:
This decision was necessary to ensure the provision of sufficient school places to meet the forecast rise in early years, primary, secondary and SEN pupil numbers projected beyond Phase 2 of the Council’s Programme of Primary Phase School Expansions.
Other options considered:
A number of options had been identified in the report each requiring further consideration. So far no option had been rejected.
Not providing any additional places was not an option as the Council would be failing to meet its statutory duties..
Cabinet:
1. Agreed that Phases 3 and 4 of the school expansion programme should be developed based on the following approach in line with consultation responses:
a. To have a preference for expanding existing popular and high-performing schools and inclusion of nursery provision and Additional Resource Provisions (ARPs) where appropriate and practicable.
b. To consider the expansion of existing schools, but only to a maximum size of 4FE (forms of entry) in the primary phase, ensuring at all times that agreed standards of education was paramount; to consider the possible establishment of primary phase provision on secondary school sites as all-through provision and the encouragement of Free Schools where needed and they provided best value.
c. To begin to rationalise Published Admission Numbers (PANs) for secondary schools so that they were in multiples of 30.
2. Agreed the PERMANENT expansion - subject to consultation and statutory processes - including planning processes and consultation of the following schools:
a. Parsonage Farm
b. Crownfield Infants & Junior Schools
c. St Peter’s Catholic School
d. Broadford Primary
e. James Oglethorpe Primary
To note that a further 1FE expansion would be required in each of the Romford and Upminster & Cranham planning areas but that work was still on-going to select those schools.
3. Delegated the power to take further decisions regarding the approval of which settings/schools should be expanded (subject to the appropriate statutory processes) for the remainder of the Phase 3 of the Expansion Programme to the Cabinet Member for Children & Learning and the Cabinet Member for Value, following consideration of the above, subject to budgetary provision being confirmed.
4. Delegated to the Director of Asset Management authority to submit planning applications, commission all associated surveys/ investigations (including transport assessment, soils survey, environmental checks etc.) and commence tender processes as required to support the development of options appraisals to deliver the phase 3 expansions required – noting that tender awards would remain the subject of separate Executive Decision(s).
5. Recommended to Council that the following items be added to the 2015/16 capital programme for phase 3 expansion:
£16,756,152 16/17 Basic Need Grant and;
£282,078 interest on existing S106 education contributions
6. Authorised feasibility studies to be carried out to facilitate the development of a secondary high quality and value for money expansion programme to take place in Phase 4 (2018/19) at a number of secondary schools.
7. Authorised £1m funding to be transferred from the phase 3 expansion programme to the phase 4 expansion programme to allow the most appropriate schemes to be developed to design & planning stage, noting that there was a risk that any schemes not progressed would not be eligible for capital funding, requiring alternative revenue funding to be identified.
8. Noted that plans to address Phase 4 of the Council’s Expansion Programme would be the subject of future reports and that where possible the financial implications would be addressed as part of the 2016/17 and future years budget setting processes.
9. Noted that transport, parking and traffic was a key issue of concern for local residents when schools were built or expanded and that future expansion plans would incorporate an action plan to address those issues.
Increasing SEN places
10. Approved the SEN Strategy – Appendix 1 to the report - and the proposals outlined in the Strategy.
11. Agreed to open a new 16-25 SEN provision based at Avelon Road by September 2016.
12. Recommended to Council that the following items be added to the 2015/16 capital programme re; post 16 SEN: £927,000 interest on existing S106 education contributions
13. Agreed to increasing the number of Early Education and Childcare Places based on the following approach:
a) Support the set-up of new businesses, particularly in areas of place pressure.
b) Engaging with maintained schools, academies and free schools to support the establishment of nursery provision to deliver the Early Education Entitlement as part of the whole school rather than engaging with a Private, Voluntary and Independent (PVI) provider especially where these were in areas of place pressure.
c) Encouraging and supporting schools to offer full time education and childcare (this might include Breakfast and After School Clubs) from 8am to 6pm, enabling school nurseries to deliver a more flexible offer including blocks of hours, rather than just morning or afternoon.
d) Engagement with both school and PVI settings to develop or expand more of these, to deliver the increased 2 year old entitlement.
e) Building capacity to support the delivery of the new 30 hours funded entitlement due to come into force in September 2017.
14. Recommended to Council that the following items be added to the 2015/16 current Early Years capital programme: £1,900,000 DSG Top-sliced from Early Years Capital.