Agendas, Meetings and Minutes - Agenda item

Agenda item

Annual Update to the School Organisation Plan and Recommendation for Provision in Worcester City

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Education and Skills explained that Worcestershire had a very diverse education system. In Worcester City actions had been taken to expand provision as much as possible but now a situation had been reached where a new Secondary School was required. Officers would be tasked with acquiring a parcel of land which would allow a school to be built to deal with the expected need and with enough room to be future proof. This would allow more pupils to get into their first preference school. A report would be brought back to Cabinet for approval and consultation would take place with stakeholders.

 

Cabinet agreed that this was a key milestone and was a positive action that would have a long-term effect when so many decisions during the pandemic seemed short term.

 

The Chairman of OSPB stated that the school needed to be fully comprehensive. It was clarified that new schools had be free academies and as such had the discretion to set their own admissions criteria but it was hoped that the school would be fully inclusive.

 

RESOLVED that Cabinet:

 

(a)   noted the updated annual sufficiency information for all areas of education added to the five-year School Organisation Plan 2019-24 in line with the Cabinet decision in December 2018;

 

(b)   noted the pressure on Mainstream and Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) places, the impact on the provision of childcare as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the work being undertaken to support Post-16 provision, highlighted in the report;

(c)   approved the publication of the 2020 update of place sufficiency information as part of the School Organisation Plan;

(d)   agreed that a new Secondary School will be built to address the shortfall in places as identified in the report;

(e)   delegated authority to the Chief Finance Officer in consultation with the Director of Children’s Services to identify funding sources to be able to implement the recommended actions, to be approved by Council and Cabinet by the funding approval process;

(f)    delegated authority to the Strategic Director for Economy and Infrastructure in consultation with the Director of Children’s Services, Chief Finance Officer and Assistant Director for Legal and Governance (Monitoring Officer) where appropriate to enter into a form of Memorandum of Understanding and continue and conclude the negotiation of an Option to acquire land to deliver a new Secondary School in the Worcester City District boundary with the intention of presenting this Option for agreement by Cabinet;

(g)   approved a pre-publication engagement with stakeholders on the proposal for a new Secondary School in Worcester City Council boundary;

(h)   will consider a full report for a new Secondary School later in 2021 to include approval of capital programme, school specification, and agreement of land purchase subject to planning approval and to authorise commencement of formal consultation on the proposals; and

(i)    will consider a report that identifies opportunities to invest locally to meet specific Special Education Needs and Disabilities in Autumn term 2021 based on the principles outlined in paragraph 52 of the report.

 

Supporting documents: