Agenda and minutes

Members noted that Miss Carey, Mr Chell and Mr Horne had been appointed to serve on the Committee in place of Mr Capon, Mr Fullarton and Mr Wells, and that Mr Law had succeeded Mr Capon as the Conservative Group Spokesman on the Committee.

(1)       At the request of the Committee, Dr Craig gave an update on revenue funding for Sure Start Local Programmes and Children’s Centres (Minute 9(10)).

(2)       As stated in the Minute, the Government provided revenue funding of an average of approximately £175k per annum for each Children’s Centre to cover management, caretaking and at least 0.5 FTE of a qualified teacher.  Funding for the 9 Children’s Centres operated under the Sure Start Local Programme had been at a higher level to cover the cost of outreach services, but the Government had indicated some time ago that funding was to be reduced to the same level as other Children’s Centres with effect from April 2008, with the cost of the outreach services being met instead by the bodies providing those services.  It now appeared likely that the funding reduction would be postponed until April 2009, but confirmation of the detailed funding arrangements were expected to be received from Government shortly and would be circulated to Members of the Committee.

(3)       RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting held on 27 June 2007 are correctly recorded and that they be signed by the Chairman.

RESOLVED that the notes of the meeting of the Informal Member Group on Budgetary Issues held on 11 July 2007 be noted.

RESOLVED that the report on the actions taken as a result of the Committee’s decisions at previous meetings, and the updated report on progress with Select Committee Topic Reviews, be noted.

Cabinet’s decision on 16 July to approve the recommendations in this report is subject to automatic referral to this Committee because the £8.5m cost of the development will be fully funded from Developer Contributions, and is therefore effectively an addition to the Council’s approved Capital Programme.

RESOLVED that the decision by Cabinet on 16 July 2007 to agree to this scheme, valued at £8.5m to be fully funded by developer contributions, being formally added to the Education and School Improvement Capital Programme, be accepted without comment.

(1)       Mr M C Dance, Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Education; Dr I Craig, Director of Operations;  Mr M Nye and Mr T Smith, School Organisation Officers, Children, Families and Education Directorate, attended the meeting for this item.

(2)       Dr Craig gave a presentation on the Strategic Plan document and the updated summary sheet circulated at the meeting.  He explained that falling school rolls were now beginning to affect secondary schools.  In 2005 Kent had had 4.51% secondary school surplus places; in 2006 5.02%; and this year 7.9%.  The percentage of surplus places was predicted to rise for at least the next 10 years.  Good practice suggested that each LEA should carry no more than 5% surplus secondary school places, so the rising level in Kent raised value for money and educational standards issues.  Government policy was to encourage the closure of less successful schools and the expansion of popular schools.

(3)       Dr Craig explained that the purpose of the Strategic Plan document was to provide contextual information which would stimulate debate over the next 6 months amongst all stakeholders, particularly at a local level, about how to tackle the issue of surplus secondary school capacity.  Dr Craig said that, apart from in areas of West Kent, he hoped that the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme could be adjusted to deal with the major part of the surplus capacity issue.

(4)       Dr Craig went on to say that, until 2004, KCC – and all other LEAs – had been required to produce an annual School Organisation Plan.  This had always been very helpful for planning the provision of school places and so CFE officers had decided to continue to produce the same sort of statistical information.  In future, it was intended that new Strategic Plan documents would be produced every year:  primary in one year and secondary the next.

(5)       Members’ questions covered the following issues:-

Accuracy of data

(6)       In answer to questions from Mr Smyth, Mrs Stockell and Dr Eddy, Dr Craig said that although it was difficult to predict birth rate figures, it was possible to predict with reasonable certainty the number of children who would enter secondary school over the next 11 years and so the number of places could be planned accordingly. 

(7)       The statistical information was updated every year (even though, in future, formal publication would only take place every 2 years).  This meant that birth rate changes, as well as other factors such as housing starts (although experience had shown that this was not a very reliable indicator of changes in the local school-age population) and new development proposals could be monitored and the plans adjusted accordingly.  In addition, the School Organisation Officers were in constant contact with District Council planners in order to obtain intelligence on new housing proposals and to seek protection for potential school sites as necessary.

Wider Issues

(8)       In answer to questions from Mr Truelove, Mr Bullock, Mr Scholes and Mr Horne, Mr Dance  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.