Agenda item

Report of the Chief Partnerships Officer

Cabinet considered a report of the Chief Partnerships Officer on the proposed Coventry One Strategic Plan and Education Capital Programme 2023-2027.

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, managed supply and demand.

The Coventry One Strategic Plan, first presented to Council on 2^nd October 2018 (minute 46/18 referred), set out pupil forecasts for special, primary, and secondary pupils across education planning areas in response to rising or falling pupil cohorts across the city. It outlined the strategy proposed by the Local Authority and the Coventry Education Partnership to meet the additional places required in secondary provision from 2023-2027. Work had also been undertaken to look at the Special School provision and the primary estate in line with falling birth rates andnew housing, outlining how to mitigate against these factors.

It was proposed that this strategy would 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 would be monitored and updated annually with presentation to the Cabinet Member for Education Portfolio, and Cabinet, alongside a wider process of constant review of School Place Planning. In addition, the procuring of places would take place annually so as not to create an unstable number of school places.

This partnership commitment signified 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. As part of this process, numerous options had been discussed at both full Coventry Education Partnership meetings, and the Secondary Headteacher Executive. The preferred option presented below had been approved by the Coventry Education Partnership as being the best valid option keeping in line with  statutory requirements as outlined by the DfE to:

i.  Spend capital funding efficiently.

ii.  Safeguard the quality of places in the system.

iii.  Manage down spare capacity in the estate where it exists.

Capital allocations to meet projected shortfalls in provision were provided by the Education Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) 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 ESFA 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. 

Since 2022 there had been a large increase in the number of pupils moving into the city each academic year. The impact of this in-year movement had been that more spaces were required in schools than forecast, using up spare capacity and causing sufficiency pressures in some year groups. In response, a review and update of pupil forecast methodology had taken place, and additional school expansions as set out in the report. 

RESOLVED that Cabinet:

1)  Authorises the programme of work outlined within the proposed Coventry One Strategic Plan for Primary, Secondary and Special Educational Needs (SEN) Education.

2)  Delegates authority to the Chief Partnerships Officer to agree the most appropriate procurement route for the works to be delivered and awarded.

3)  Subject to acting within existing budgets, authorises the acquisition of such land by way of agreement as is required to facilitate sufficiency of school places within Coventry.

4)  Delegates authority to the Director of Property Services and Development and Chief Partnerships Officer, following consultation with the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Legal Officer, to undertake all necessary due diligence including acceptance of terms for such Acquisition and the entering into appropriate legal agreements.

5)  Authorises the funding stream as set out in section 2.4 of the report to be utilised for the delivery of programme of works in relation to primary, secondary and SEND places within the Coventry One Strategic Plan.

6)  Notes the increased fees for academy conversion recoupment charges as set out in section 4 of the report.