Issue - meetings

Cabinet received a report seeking approval of the KCC Commissioning Plan for Education Provision in Kent 2018-2022.

Mr Roger Gough, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Education introduced the report and plan for members.  He explained that the plan was updated annually and as part of that process District Councils, Key stakeholders and partners and the KCC Children’s, Young People and Education Cabinet Committee had all been consulted.

He said that two issues were particularly relevant to the plan before cabinet for consideration; firstly, the shift in proposed expansions from Primary Schools to Secondary Schools, as those children that had  required the places provided by the major expansion programme for Primary Schools now entered Secondary Schools and secondly the failure of the National Free School Programme to deliver in a number of key areas resulting in a pushing back of responsibilities to local government and the associated financial pressures that the National Free School Programme had been intended to resolve.

He also referred to the work achieved as part of the Special School Programme of expansions and improvement, the reissued SEND strategy and the underlying pressures evident in the area of special education provision.

The Leader referred to the problems that had arisen as a result of the academisation of a large number of schools, without the transfer of responsibility to provide school places, which had led to many county councils funding expansions at schools over which they had no control once expanded.  He also expressed concern that County Council’s may be asked to provide funding to make up the shortfall after Basic Need and Developer Contributions and assured members that an ongoing conversation was underway with the relevant government ministers to try to ensure that Local government was not financially disadvantaged by the shortfalls of the National Free School Programme.

Keith Abbott, Director – Education Planning and Access spoke to the item and  thanked schools and trusts across the county who had put in place short term measures to address shortfalls in school places caused by SFA delays

It was RESOLVED that the Commissioning Plan be approved. 

The Children’s, Young People and Education Cabinet Committee is asked to consider and endorse or make recommendations on the Plan prior to the final version being considered and approved by Cabinet on 15 January 2018.

1.    Roger Gough (Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Education) introduced the report which set out the Commissioning Plan for Education Provision in Kent 2018-22. He commented on the significant increase in primary school numbers to which Kent had responded very successfully over the years. He said that the number of children within the primary system in Kent would increase over the next five years from 123,000 to 129,000 and that the number of children within the secondary system in Kent would increase from 79,000 to approximately 92,000 to establish 84 forms of entry over the five year period. He said that the numbers were accelerating rapidly and that the national Free School Programme had experienced a number of difficulties in delivering what schools in Kent needed.

2.    Keith Abbott (Director of Education Planning and Access) referred to the £150m gap in terms of delivering what was required for schools by September 2020. He said that a particular area of concern for special schools in Kent was the number of organisations interested in sponsoring special Free Schools which were getting ready to submit bids in the Wave 13 of the Free School Programme which should have opened in March 2017; there was no clear indication from Government regarding the Wave 13 opening date.

a)    In response to a question, David Adams (Area Education Officer – South Kent) confirmed that there had been ongoing conversations with neighbouring authorities Bexley regarding housing plans and said that some of the pressure would be counted within Kent’s basic need allocations.

b)    In response to a question, Patrick Leeson confirmed that the Commissioning Plan for Education Provision in Kent 2018-22 was driven through educational needs and to allow children to go to a good school to meet their needs as learners. He said that it was proving difficult in terms of take up of two year olds accessing their free early years and child care places. The highest percentage of those two year olds taking up a free place was roughly 74%. He said that all Children Centre’s in Kent were encouraging families to participate in the Free For 2 (FF2) offer. He said that although it was important for the figures to increase, it was the parents’ decision as to whether or not to take up their two year old free place.

c)    In response to a question, Patrick Leeson said that Kent had a statutory responsibility to track all young people from age 16-19 to ensure that they were participating in ongoing learning and training, and added that the young people would be described as NEET (Not in Education, Employment of Training) if they were not. He said that the number of NEET young people in Kent had reduced from over 6% to 2.9% over the last 18 months.

3.    Keith Abbott said there were ongoing conversations with each district council’s Leader and Senior Managers to ensure that the Commissioning Plan was up to date and in line with the information that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47