Issue - meetings

Councillor Orhan moved and Councillor Stafford seconded the report from the Director of Schools & Children’s Services (No.13A) seeking approval to the inclusion of Phase 2 of the strategy for the provision of pupil places 2013-14 – 2017/18 within the Council’s Capital Programme.

NOTED

1.         Cabinet on 19 June 2013 had approved the updated strategy and budget, as detailed in section 2.1.1 – 2.1.6 of the report.  Council was now being asked to formally approve the addition of Phase 2 of the School Expansion Programme to the Council’s Capital Programme.

2.        The ongoing need identified for the provision of primary school places, as detailed in section 4 of the report in order to meet projected demand.

3.         The thanks expressed by the Cabinet member for Children & Young People to all schools and officers involved, for their support in delivery of the Primary Expansion Programme (PEP) to date. The PEP had been subject to ongoing monitoring, adaptation and development in order to reflect consultation, site constraints and planning issues with the major changes outlined in section 3.2 of the report.

4.         The updated programme and project management arrangements to be established for delivery of Phase 2 of the School Expansion Programme, as detailed in section 4.17 – 4.23 of the report.

5.         The concerns highlighted by the Opposition Group in relation to:

a.         the basis of the independent review which the Council had commissioned in relation to projected pupil place demand in addition to the annual release of population projections by the Greater London Authority;

b.         the need to ensure a joined up approach in relation to the planning, design and delivery of each project to ensure that any association traffic and planning issues were addressed in a co-ordinated way;

c.         the development of associated plans to address secondary provision across the borough; and

d.         the limited level of detail within the report in relation to specific site proposals and availability of funding, given the dependency on future allocations of Government grants and outcome of the bid for Targeted Basic Need Grant which were still to be announced;

6.         The challenging nature of the delivery programme, given the projected level of demand for school places, recent changes in national policy and the funding regime, which Phase 2 of the strategy had been developed to recognise and address.

Following a period of further debate the recommendations in the report were agreed without a vote.

AGREED

(1)    To note the recommendations agreed by Cabinet on 19 June 13, as detailed in section 2.1.1 – 2.1.6 of the report.

(2)      To the approve and adopt Phase 2 of the School Expansion Programme in the Council’s Capital Programme on the basis of a provisional budget of up to £44.318m to deliver 1,680 extra Council funded Primary school reception places, including the cost of rebuilding and re-configuring existing schools between 2013/14 and 2017/18, subject to availability of funding, agreement of detailed scheme costs, and clear demonstration of value for money. (Key Decision – Reference KD3719)