Agenda item

Report of the Portfolio Holder for Early Years, Education and Employment

The Board considered the report of the Portfolio Holder for Early Years, Education, and Employment asking for approval to accept the Capital Maintenance Grant from the Department for Education, and approve allocations in advance of receipt. The Portfolio Holder explained that approving the allocations in advance would allow for forward planning and would minimise delay in implementing projects once it is recevied.

Resolved to:

(1)  To accept and approve the allocation received by the Department for Education (DfE) of the School Capital Maintenance funding upon receipt to the projects as set out in appendix A,

(2)  To note that £0.136 million is set aside as a contingency fund. 

(3)  To allow the adjustment of the number of projects prioritised in Appendix A and the contingency upon receipt of the grant announcement, should it be necessary.

(4)  Once funding has been received, to approve £0.025 million to allow the scoping and prioritisation of projects for a programme of works in 2021/22 to commence in Autumn 2020

(5)  Once funding has been received, to amend the Capital Programme to include the allocation of grant.

(6)  Once funding has been received, to delegate authority to the Corporate Director for People to allow the adjustment of the number of projects prioritised in Appendix A and the contingency should it be necessary.

(7)  To allocate contingency funding to projects such as health and safety or condition issues which arise during 2020/21, and to adjust the funding allocation for each project once cost information is finalised, subject to value for money being demonstrated and costs being within the overall budget allocated for this programme of works.

(8)  To appoint NCC Design Services to design, procure and manage the projects. 

(9)  To approve the procurement of the works through the East Midlands Regional construction framework – an OJEU (the Official Journal of the European Union) compliant framework.

(10)To delegate authority to the Head of Legal Services to sign contracts with the preferred contractors following procurement exercises to allow the projects to be delivered.

(11)  To approve a payment of up to £0.100m from the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) Lifecycle Reserve fund to Rosehill Special School to undertake condition and maintenance works to the building.

Reasons for decision

Funding prioritisation is based on advice received and reviews of the schools. 2 areas where funding has been prioritised is

·  Health and Safety issues likely to impact on children and staff

·  Condition issues likely to impact on the operation of the school.

The balance of the funding for the School Condition grant has been identified

as part of the prioritisation process and £0.136 million will be held as a

contingency amount to deal with urgent health and safety or condition issues

that arise during the financial year 2020/21. Delegating authority to the

Corporate Director for People to approve these projects will enable a swift

response to urgent issues as they arise.

It is assumed that the DfE will continue to allocate the Capital maintenance grant to Local Authorities. In order to plan ahead for the delivery of future schemes, £0.025 million will be allocated to begin the prioritisation for a programme of works in 2021/22. Further approvals will be sought to allocate funding to this programme of works in Spring 2021 on the assumption that funding will be allocated by the DfE. This forward planning will ensure that the Local Authority prepares for delivery and sets out a clear programme of future works to maintain schools, subject to funding being received.

Rosehill Special School was rebuilt under wave 2 of the BSF programme. As

part of this programme to meet the requirements of the Department for

Education (DfE), both the school and the City Council had to commit to

funding a lifecycle fund so that the building could be maintained to the same

standard as a new Private Finance Initiative (PFI) school for 25 years.

Rosehill Special School has now been operational for eight years and the

school are undertaking minor works to the building that will improve the

education environment, health & safety and security.

The works will be procured directly by the school in line with financial

regulations and with the support of the Major Projects team.

Other options considered

Consideration was given to combine the Condition funding and the Basic Need funding. If combined this funding could be used to address the shortfall in school places across the city.

Consideration was also given to amalgamating the Condition grant with broader City Council capital funding.

Both of these options have been rejected, as they would leave schools at risk of closure through health and safety or condition issues. It would also mean that school buildings would continue to deteriorate, increasing the risk of forced closure for emergency repairs.

With regard Rosehill School, to ‘do nothing’ has been rejected as, while this would retain the funding within the Lifecycle Reserve; it would not support the maintenance of the school as a positive environment for education.