Decision details

Proposed decision: to allocate funding from the Education and Young People’s Service Capital budget for the accommodation works, to increase the physical capacity of Meadowfield (Foundation Special) School from September 2017.  The School provides for children aged 4 to 19 years with Profound, Severe and Complex needs, including Autism.  The School has a designated number of 209 and has taken additional children above this number for two years to meet the demand for places.  Currently there are 246 pupils on roll at the school. The school requires new accommodation and facilities in order to cater for the needs of the additional pupils.

How the decision relates to Facing the Challenge and Corporate Objectives: Providing additional places at the school will help to secure our ambition “to ensure that Kent’s young people have access to the education, work and skills opportunities necessary to support Kent business to grow and be increasingly competitive in the national and international economy”, as set out in ‘Increasing Opportunities, Improving Outcomes: Kent County Council’s Strategic Statement (2015 - 2020)’.

The Commissioning Plan for Education Provision in Kent 2017-2021 sets out

how the County Council will carry out its responsibility for ensuring there are sufficient places of high quality, in the right places, for all learners and this increase of school places supports that aim. 

The ‘Strategy for Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and who are Disabled’ (SEND Strategy) “has a priority to create at least 275 additional places for ASD and BESN”

The matter is referred to in the Directorate Business Plan/Medium Term Capital Programme.

As Cabinet Member for Education and Health Reform I agree to:

a)    Allocate £1.14m from the Education and Young People’s Service Capital budget;

b)   Authorise the Director of Infrastructure in consultation with the General Counsel to enter into any necessary contracts/ agreements on behalf of the County Council; and

c)    Authorise the Director of Infrastructure 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