Issue details

Proposed decision:

The Cabinet Member for Education and Skills to agree to permanently expand  the age range of the Westmeads Infant School from 4-7 years to 2-7 years to establish a school run nursery provision.

Reason for the decision

As Westmeads Infant School is a community school, the decision maker is the Local Authority and requires a statutory process to lower the age range of the school. The proposal to lower the age range therefore requires a public notice.

Background

In Spring 2023, the Government announced its ambition of extending the free entitlements to younger children in three phases. Phase one implemented in April 2024, saw children of working parents entitled to 15 hours of funding the term after they turned two. In September 2024, phase two will extend this offer to working parents of those children aged 9 months plus and then in September 2025, phase three will see the working parent entitlement extending to 30 hours for all eligible children.

To support the delivery of this project, the government has made available £100m of capital funding for local authorities through the Childcare Expansion Capital Grant of which Kent has been awarded £2,658,723: 20% to support the schools wraparound programme and 80% for the development of 2,741 early years places to meet the demand of the new entitlements.

Westmeads Infant School currently provides early years education for children who turn five when in the Reception class. The school have proposed to lower the age range from 4-7 to 2-7 years to provide nursery provision at the school.

The proposed nursery provision at Westmeads Infant School will be to open an ‘open air’, outdoor, ‘all weather’ nursery provision for 2-4 year olds within a purpose built building that will incorporate larger outdoor provision adjacent to the building on the school site. The provision would admit 26 3-4 year olds and 13 2 year old pupils.

The Local Authority is confident that the strong and effective leadership of the school has the capacity to establish a successful nursery provision, so that there will be additional pre-school places available for local families.

Securing Kent’s Future

The 'Securing Kent's Future' strategy outlines the measures that KCC intend to take to ensure that Kent remains financially stable, now and long into the future.  It describes the statutory priorities, one of which being the statutory duty to ensure sufficient school places are available to any child or young person who requires one.  This duty applies to Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision, as well as mainstream settings.

This proposal is necessary for KCC to continue to deliver the statutory duty, in a cost-effective way, in line with the guidelines described in the Securing Kent's Future strategy. It will help to maintain KCC’s strategic role in supporting schools in Kent to deliver accessible, high quality education provision for all families.

Framing Kent’s Future – Our Council Strategy 2022-2026

This proposal will help to support Framing Kent’s Future – Our Council Strategy (2022-2026) Priority 1 - Levelling up. ‘To maintain KCC’s strategic role in supporting schools in Kent to deliver accessible, high quality education provision for all families.’

Legal Implications

KCC, as the Local Authority (LA), has a statutory duty to ensure sufficient school places are available.  This duty applies to Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision, as well as mainstream settings.

The County Council’s Commissioning Plan for Education Provision in Kent 2024 - 28 is a five-year rolling plan which is updated annually.  It sets out KCC’s future plans as Strategic Commissioner of Education Provision across all types and phases of education in Kent. It also sets out how we will carry out our responsibility for early education and childcare. Early Education and Childcare is legislatively governed by the Childcare Acts of 2006 and 2016. These place a duty on all local authorities to improve outcomes for young children, to cut inequalities between them, to secure sufficient childcare, with adequate flexibility to allow parents to work.

https://www.kent.gov.uk/education-and-children/schools/education-provision/education-provision-plan

Statutory Guidance on the changing of age range of a maintained school can be found in the Making significant changes (‘prescribed alterations’) to maintained schools Statutory guidance for proposers and decision makers October 2024 This guidance primarily relates to The School Organisation (Prescribed Alterations to Maintained Schools) (England) Regulations 2013.

A statutory process is required to lower the age range, which consists of an initial informal consultation period of 4 weeks. Any objections will be considered by the Cabinet Member in advance of taking a decision to issue the Public Notice. Should significant objections, not already considered by the Cabinet Member when taking this decision, be received during the notice period, a separate decision may be required dependent on the level of modification required in order to continue the proposal and allow for proper consideration of the points raised.