Decision details

Decision:

The Cabinet Member for Education and Skills is asked to agree to:

a.    allocate an additional £2.5m from the Children, Young People & Education Capital Budget, in addition to the £9m previously allocated, to provide a project total of £11.5m to fund any necessary additional works or variations to accommodation.

b.    Authorise the Director of Infrastructure, Strategic and Corporate Services in consultation with the General Counsel and Director of Education to enter into any necessary contracts/ agreements on behalf of the County Council.

c.    Authorise the Director of Infrastructure, Strategic and Corporate Services to be the nominated Authority Representative within the relevant agreements and to enter into variations as envisaged under the contracts. Variations to contract value to be no more than 10% above the capital funding agreed by the Cabinet Member without requiring a new Record of Decision.

Background

KCC’s Children and Young People’s Education Cabinet Committee endorsed the proposal to allocate £9m from the Capital budget to enable the proposal to go ahead.  This decision was made in the paper 18/00006.

The proposal is to allocate an additional £2.5m from the Children, Young People & Education Capital Budget, in addition to the £9m previously allocated, to provide a project total of £11.5m

The reasons for the increased expenditure are as follows:

The initial Record of Decision was given, prior to the planning permission being granted which required further works than anticipated for a standard 2FE Expansion at the time.  Due to pupil demand and time constraints the project has been procured and delivered over a three year period which adds cost to the Scheme and inflation costs.  The project has and is being delivered over six phases across the three year period to meet the Basic Need requirement and this was not envisaged when the initial ROD was approved.

The additional funding is to complete the outstanding phases of work which include 4 New Science Labs and internal refurbishments in line with the DfE BB103 Guidelines to give the School the space they require to fully expand by 2FE.

Since presenting the previous RoD, the bus park has been extended and has required additional S278 works to the main highway alongside the school to enable safe access and egress for the buses. This bus park provides for the 12FE on site at Wildernesse, not just the Trinity students.  Additionally, the MUGA being provided as a part of the Trinity scheme has to be designed to include a retaining wall given the size and location of MUGA being provided.

KCC have worked with the contracted builder over the past six months alongside the school to reduce the scope and specification as much as possible without compromising on the educational space needed.  Savings have been made where possible with specific relation to omitting some admin areas and reducing the M&E scope of works.

Without the additional funding, we will not be able to complete the outstanding Phases to provide the teaching accommodation to meet the demand of pupil places at Trinity School. 

Options

There are no viable options.  This school expansion is being proposed to accommodate the demand for non-selective places in the central Sevenoaks area.

The only alternative, Knole Academy is not able to expand on their current site, due to cost and space issues.

Original decision and Report

https://democracy.kent.gov.uk/mgIssueHistoryHome.aspx?IId=47967&optionId=0

https://democracy.kent.gov.uk/mgDecisionDetails.aspx?IId=47967&Opt=1

How the proposed decision meets the objectives of ‘Increasing Opportunities, Improving Outcomes: Kent County Council’s Strategic Statement 2015-2020.

This enlargement has added an additional 60 Year 7 places to the capacity per year, in line with priorities in the Kent Policy Framework, ‘Vision and Priorities for Education and Young People’s Services’ and the 'Commissioning Plan for Education' (2018 – 2022).

All options were considered as part of the Kent Commissioning Plan for Education Provision 2018-2022.