Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Children and Young People’s Service, the purpose of which was to update the Committee on the current position regarding the provision of Primary and Secondary School places in Leicestershire and to seek comments on the challenges ahead.  A copy of the report is filed with these minutes.

The following points arose from discussion:

      i.        The County Council’s continued statutory duty to ensure that sufficient school places were available within its area and the need to meet this obligation within its existing resources was a concern.  This highlighted the need for a co-ordinated approach to be established with district councils and schools and the further education sector;

    ii.        District councils, as local planning authorities, had a key role to play in ensuring appropriate funds were obtained from developers to fund the need for increased school places arising from a particular development.  Developer contributions requested by the County Council were calculated based on a national formula and supported by an identified need for school places as a consequence of the planned development;

   iii.        Perceptions of whether a school had capacity sometimes varied and it was suggested that this could be confusing for local planning authorities.  Some members considered that a clearer picture of the actual capacity available in a particular area needed to be provided early on in the planning process and that closer joint working with schools on this issue might be helpful.  The Committee requested that further information be circulated to members on the liaison process undertaken between the County Council and schools on planning the future need for school places arising as a result of new development;

   iv.        The County Council was in the process of developing a strategy to manage its expectations for growth/demand for school places and how it would work to mitigate against this.  The Committee requested that the proposed strategy be brought to a future meeting of the Committee for its detailed consideration;

    v.        It would be difficult to plan precisely what the future demand for school places would be given the number of factors which impacted upon this.  Estimates were therefore obtained based on the best information available at the present time.  The Committee requested that details of the current capacity figures for Leicestershire primary and secondary schools broken down geographically and by catchment area be circulated to members;  

   vi.        Policy changes on home to school transport would affect many secondary schools and it would be necessary for wider consideration to be given to this when longer term changes were considered, with input from members of this Committee being obtained when appropriate;

  vii.        £0.3m capital funding had been allocated in 2013/14 programme for the development of a 25 place school for children with autism, but this had proved financially unviable and the funding had therefore been transferred to the school accommodation programme. It was questioned what impact this would have on children and their families and whether this might result in the need for such children to be educated out of county.  The Director of Children and Young People’s Services undertook to consider and provide further information on the concerns raised.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the content of the report be noted;

(b)  That the Director of Children and Young People’s Service be requested to provide a report on the proposed County Council strategy for dealing with school place planning to a future meeting of the Committee;

(c)  That officers be requested to circulate to members of the Committee details of:

(i)            the capacity figures for Leicestershire primary and secondary schools broken down geographically and by catchment area;

(ii)          the liaison process undertaken between the County Council and schools on planning the future need for school places arising as a result of new development;

(iii)         the impact no longer being able to proceed with the development of a 25 place school for children with autism might have on children and their families and whether this might result in the need for such children to be educated out of county.