Issue - meetings

Coventry One Strategic Plan and Education Capital Programme 2024 - 2028

Meeting: 10/06/2025 - Cabinet (Item 5)

5 Coventry One Strategic Plan and Education Capital Programme 2024 - 2028 pdf icon PDF 461 KB

Director for Children and Education Services

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Children and Education which sought approval to the Coventry One Strategic Plan for Primary, Secondary and Special Educational Needs (SEN) Education 2024-2028. The Plan was attached as an Appendix to the report.

 

Under Section 14 of the Education Act 1996, Coventry City Council had a statutory duty to ensure sufficient school places and fair, appropriate access to education. It was the Council’s role to plan, commission and organise school places in a way that raised standards, and managed supply and demand.

 

The Coventry One Strategic Plan sets out pupil forecasts for primary and secondary schools, as well as Special Education Needs (SEND) across education planning areas in response to rising or falling pupil cohorts across the city. It was proposed that this Strategy will be a flexible plan, able to adapt to shifting mechanisms of parental preference, unforeseen changes in supply and demand of school places, and future birth rates. To do this, the One Strategic Plan will be monitored and updated annually with presentation to the Cabinet Member whose portfolio includes education, and Cabinet, alongside a wider process of constant review of School Place Planning. In addition, the procuring of school places will take place annually so as not to create an unstable number of school places.

 

There was commitment through a statement of intent to collaborate and work in partnership to achieve the best possible outcomes for children and young people in Coventry, ensure the sustainability of Coventry schools, and to enable the City Council to meet its statutory obligations. The options within the Strategic Plan had been discussed at Coventry Education Partnership meetings including headteachers and education colleagues from across the city.

 

The Strategy outlined within the One Strategic Plan Appendix was in line with the statutory requirement as outlined by the DfE to:

 

i.  Spend capital funding efficiently

ii.  Safeguard the quality of places in the system

iii.  Utilise spare capacity in the estate where it exists.

 

Capital allocations to meet projected shortfalls in provision were provided by the Department for Education (DFE) to all Local Authorities based on the data provided in the annual School Capacity return (SCAP). Demand for places minus the supply of places was multiplied by a cost per pupil place to inform the final allocation. This return informed the DFE of the expected change in pupil numbers over the next few years, the current capacity of schools to meet those numbers and the planned changes to that capacity. Funding was also secured via S106 contributions from housing developers in response to new housing estates. With recent financial allocations this proposed Strategy was sustainable and in keeping with the financial allocations announced. 

 

Since the 2021/22 academic year there had been a large increase in the number of pupils moving into the city in year. The impact of this in-year movement had been that more places were required in schools than forecast, using up spare capacity and causing sufficiency pressures in some year groups.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5