Agenda item

School Place Planning

Presentation by Nick Lee, Head of Access and Inclusion

Minutes:

Nick Lee, Head of Access and Inclusion, gave a presentation to the Forum on place planning for Nottingham’s secondary phase requirements, highlighting the following:

 

(a)  primary school capacity in the city has been expanded since 2009, with additional capacity of approximately 4,000 new places funded through a capital programme of approximately £40 million;

(b)  new capacity was achieved through added capacity to existing buildings, refurbishments of mothballed premises such as Lenton Primary and delivery of 3 new build school sites;

(c)  the final primary expansion is now underway with 2 outstanding projects at Middleton and Glade Hill primaries. Nearly 95% of Nottingham children were offered their first or second choice of school for a start in September 2017;

(d)  any additional housing projects are kept under review to see if additional capacity will be needed, and to see if costs can be accrued from developers through Section 106 contributions;

(e)  projections against current school capacities show a shortfall of Year 7 places at secondary level in some areas from 2018 and citywide from 2019, if no further places are added. Approximately 15-17 new forms of entry will be required by 2022 which is when the demand will peak;

(f)  increased pressure on places in Nottinghamshire means that fewer Nottingham City pupils are now attending Nottinghamshire schools, which adds additional pressure;

(g)  ensuring that the supply of school places meets local demand remains a statutory duty of local authorities, even though they are no longer able to open new schools, and so rely on the expansion of existing schools or the opening of new Free Schools or Academies;

(h)  the council is striving to meet the need for school places in a way that promotes parental choice and diversity, enabling access to good schools close to home and so is in discussion with good and outstanding secondary schools and multi-academy trusts to identify solutions;

(i)  a number of secondary schools have reduced their admission numbers in recent years, primarily for performance reasons. These schools have been asked to be mindful of the need for additional capacity in the city and one has now increased its admission number again;

(j)  agreement can be difficult due to the fragmented nature of secondary schools, with a mixture of national multi-academy trusts and smaller multi-academy trusts, who have different aspirations;

(k)  the Basic Need allocation for the city is very limited and falls well short of delivering the required capacity. This is because a number of secondary schools currently still have surplus capacity. The authority is in discussions with the Department for Education around the city’s needs;

(l)  the local authority is unable to set up free schools. There is a local authority led school presumption competition route available but this requires a site and capital upfront which the local authority is unable to offer;

(m)the Local Authority has commissioned a review of some secondary schools to assess sufficiency. Trinity School has added one additional form of entry from September 2017, and NUAST is extending its age range and capacity from September 2018. Fernwood Academy has submitted a bid for expansion funding to add 3 forms of entry, which the Local Authority is supporting.

 

The following points were raised during the discussion which followed:

 

(n)  there are a number of competition free schools opening in the Nottinghamshire County Council area. This is possible due to the fact that they receive more Basic Needs funding, and also they have more Section 106 agreements for funding as they have large housing developments which the city does not;

(o)  the NUAST school site is quite restricted and close to busy roads. However, this has been assessed as suitable, and they use open spaces at the University for recreational and sporting activities;

(p)  the quality of education provided at secondary schools must be at the centre of any expansions;

(q)  places for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) have a separate capital allocation, which covers both special schools and provision for SEND pupils in mainstream settings;

(r)  all planning applications are seen by the School Organisation Team to assess whether any claims for Section 106 funding would be suitable.

 

RESOLVED to

 

(1)  thank Nick for the information and answers provided;

(2)  request an update on secondary capacity in the next academic year.