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.