Agenda item

To receive a report which sets out the proposed decision to expand Meadowfield (Foundation Special) School and informs Members of the revised cost of the project.

Marisa White (Area Education Officer – East Kent) was in attendance for this item

1.    Marisa White introduced the report which set out the reasons behind the request to increase the funding allocation from the Children, Young People and Education Capital Budget for the expansion of Meadowfield (Foundation Special) School and informed Members of the Committee of the revised cost of the project.

a)    In response to a question relating to class sizes, Marisa White said that the class sizes varied between 5 and 8 children because the children had very complex needs.

b)    In response to a question relating to the revised cost of the project, Marisa White said that some of the elements of the project had not been anticipated. She said that many discussions had taken place between the school’s head of department and project managers in relation to the cost of the project, and the company undertaking the work had a duty to take the outcome of those discussions into consideration when producing the cost estimate. She said that it became clear that the company had produced unreliable cost estimates at the point that Kent County Council were undertaking much more work than anticipated to ensure that the project was ready for the planning stage.

c)    In response to a question, Mr Gough (Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Education) said that when being made aware of this issue, he sought assurance from officers in relation to how and why this had happened and where the funding would be taken from to resolve the issue. He said that there were underspends in other areas of Children, Young People and Education within Kent and therefore other projects and other resources would not be deprived of funding.

d)    In response to a question, Matt Dunkley said that Kent County Council’s building costs in terms of unit costs, national government guidelines and performance compared very well. Therefore, the vast majority of the school’s capital programme was delivered efficiently, within budget and at a good price compared to national comparators. He discussed the way in which the programmes were delivered and the project management system that Infrastructure, Gen2 and providers said that the transition period occasionally lead to minor issues.

e)    In response to a question, Keith Abbott said that a great amount of discussion had taken place between colleagues in Infrastructure and Gen2 as to why and how certain elements of projects were overlooked. He said that Kent County Council delivered within budget on all aspects of the school capital programme, but this did not mean that setbacks did not occur. He said that it was important to ensure that correct processes were in place to be sure that particular issues were not reoccurring and were managed within the budget that was available.

f)     In response to a question, Keith Abbott said that Revenue and Capital Monitoring was discussed at the Policy and Resources Committee.

2.    Mr Gough proposed to provide a briefing note to Members of the Committee outside of the meeting which would provide further detail relating to the revised project cost. A Member of the Committee proposed that the recommendation be amended to reflect this, this was supported by the Committee.

3.    RESOLVED that the decision proposed to be taken by the Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Education, to:

(a)    AGREE to increase the funding allocated from the Children, Young People and Education capital budget to expand Meadowfield from £3,950,000 to £5,096,934, subject to providing a briefing note to Members of the Children’s, Young People and Education Cabinet Committee explaining in more detail the reasons behind the proposal, be endorsed.