Issue details

Proposed decision:

The Cabinet Member for Education and Skills to agree to:

1. ALLOCATE £9,298,049 from the CYPE Capital Budget to complete the permanent expansion of Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy, bringing the total project budget to £10,698,049.

2. DELEGATE authority to the Director of Infrastructure to, in consultation with the Director of Education, enter into any necessary contracts or other legal agreements, as required to implement this decision; and

3. AGREE for the Director of Infrastructure to be the nominated Authority Representative within the relevant agreements, with authority to enter variations as envisaged under the contracts

Reason for the decision

This proposal to expand Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy was developed because the Kent Commissioning Plan 2024/2028 indicated that there will be a shortfall in year 7 places in the Dartford and Swanley non-selective planning group.

If no further action is taken in the longer term, Kent County Council will find it extremely difficult to provide sufficient secondary school places in the Dartford and Swanley non-selective planning group.

Background

Dartford Borough’s population is increasing with more families moving into the

area and as a result, Kent County Council needs to add additional secondary school places to manage the increase in demand. One strategy for providing additional school places is to expand existing successful and popular schools.

Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy, part of the Leigh Academy Trust (LAT), is a co-educational secondary school.  Following an inspection that took place in April 2023, Ofsted deems Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy to be a ‘GOOD’ school.

Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy agreed to increase its PAN from 240 to offer 270 places for September 2023, September 2024 and September 2025.

Following further discussions, Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy agreed to offer 300 places from 2026, subject to a physical expansion. This proposal seeks to facilitate the expansion by building a standalone block and enable various internal and external works.  The Trust, senior leadership team and governors of Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy agreed to consult on this proposal to permanently expand the school and enlarge the secondary provision within the school by the addition of 60 places per school year.

Financial Implications

Capital

When this scheme was presented to CYPE Cabinet Committee in May 2024, the estimated cost was £10.5 million which was split between KCC for the majority of the expansion work and a smaller element being allocated to LAT to undertake some smaller elements of the expansion directly. 

Following that Committee, the KCC Cabinet Member for Education and Skills agreed to allocate £1.4m from the CYPE Capital Budget to enable early design work and small building alterations to be undertaken.

As planning for the whole scheme has progressed and RIBA Stage 3 was completed, the estimated cost has increased slightly but the increase was minimised by a range of value engineering measures, which resulted in the total scheme cost increasing to £10,698,049.  The revised breakdown of costs is as follows:

With the revised overall cost of the scheme being £10,698,049, this meant a further decision to allocate the remaining balance of £9,298,049 from the CYPE Capital Budget was required.

An allowance of up to £2,500 may be payable to the school, to outfit each new

teaching room with appropriate ICT equipment, such as touch screens or projection equipment.  This will be met from the overall Capital allocation for this project.

Revenue

The school would also receive funding for the additional pupils that it admits in line with the funding allocated to schools through KCC’s Schools Funding Formula.

As the scheme progresses, £6,000 per newly provided learning space, would

be provided towards the cost of furniture and equipment, such as tables, desks, chairs, cabinets and learning resources.

Both of these revenue allocations will be met from the Growth Funding provision held within the dedicated school's grant.

Human

The school will appoint additional staff as required; utilising revenue funding allocated through the Schools Funding Formula for these additional pupils.