Meeting documents

Bath and North East Somerset Education Service

Statement of Priorities 2003 - 2006 (DRAFT)

Introduction

1. Aims

1.1 The overall vision of the Council is summarised in the Best Value Performance Plan as "Making Bath and North East Somerset a better place to live, work and visit". In working towards the vision the Council has established the following key strategic objectives:

1.2 Building on the vision set out in the Best Value Performance Plan the Council is now developing its first fully integrated Corporate Plan. The Draft Corporate Plan 2003 - 2007 sets out the Council's principal objectives and identifies key improvement priorities upon which the council will focus its energy and resources. Two of these priorities have an educational focus:-

1.3 The aims of the Education Service set out below are consistent with, and supportive of, these overall strategic objectives. These aims are the major contributor to developing lifelong learning for everyone and indirectly support the other objectives.

1.4 The LEA's overriding purposes are to enhance educational opportunity and to maximise the educational achievements of all learners. The LEA seeks high standards and high achievement for all and believes education to be a liberating force.

1.5 The aims of the Education Service Strategic Plan 2002 - 2005 are to:

2. Achieving our aims

2.1 The LEA believes that educational opportunity and provision will be maximised when strong partnerships are promoted with teachers, parents, governors, school staff, dioceses, business and local communities.

2.2 These aims will only be successfully achieved by acknowledging our inter-dependence and working together in a culture of continuous improvement and performance measured against key national and local performance indicators.

3. The contribution of capital investment to raising standards.

3.1 It is rarely the case that accommodation or the lack of it is the sole reason for under achievement. There can be little doubt however that an appropriate teaching and learning environment can contribute to raising educational standards and there is also recent evidence that it has a beneficial effect on pupil behaviour. The LEA will continue to focus on capital investment which has a potential impact on school improvement. This means giving priority to projects where both condition and suitability issues are addressed. There will continue to be close liaison with Property Services to ensure that unsuitable buildings will not continue to be maintained through the Planned Maintenance Programme when there are alternative investment options. Similarly schools are encouraged to use devolved capital funding whenever possible on standards led projects.

3.2 The LEA recognises the development of Asset Management Plans as an important tool for establishing capital priorities and determining its approach to meeting identified needs. It is committed to a process which ensures that the needs of all schools are addressed openly and objectively but value for money issues and commitment from schools through joint funding will also inform priorities.

4. Delivering the Government's Priorities

4.1 This strategy is set within the Government's agenda, e.g. transforming secondary education, social inclusion, 14-19 developments, the development of the extended school. The priorities are also integrated within the other plans of the LEA, including in particular:

4.2 The Statement of Priorities summarises the LEA's strategic priorities for the use of resources available to the Authority and schools, for the improvement of school buildings, to meet the aims and objectives described above.

5. Key Local Factors

5.1 The Council's Joint Replacement Structure Plan identifies the need for 6200 new dwellings in the area between 1996 and 2011. By 2003, 2870 dwellings had been completed leaving 3360 to be built over the coming period. A phased approach will be taken which means that approximately 2000 homes will be completed by 2006.

5.2 The Corporate Capital Strategy has identified six major regeneration sites that support cross-cutting objectives as set out in the various Council plans. Two of these development sites will include direct educational provision or complement new schools already planned. The Western Riverside as stated above will see development of a new primary school in central Bath. The Radstock Rail Lands development will see mixed use town centre regeneration in an area of high social deprivation. This will complement the planned provision of two new all through primary schools in Radstock by September 2005 funded chiefly through the Targeted Capital Fund.

5.3 Levels of Educational Attainment Standards in Bath & North East Somerset are above the national average. However, this high level of performance is not uniform across all schools. No review of a school or area has been undertaken purely on the grounds of underachievement but the LEA process for undertaking reviews agreed as part of the School Organisation Plan in July 2003, states that one of the reasons for a review could be that a school has been judged by OFSTED as having serious weaknesses, or to require special measures. Furthermore, if a school is a cause of major concern to the LEA a review may be undertaken.

5.4 The School Population - The primary school population is falling. In September 1996 the number on roll at primary schools was 12,609. In September 2003 this had fallen to 12207. Forecasts indicate that this will fall to 12,085 by September 2005. Data from the Primary Care Trust indicates that this trend will continue.

5.5 The overall effect of a contracting primary population is a continuing need to review the level of accommodation available to particular schools but also to undertake school reviews where viability is called into question due to low pupil numbers and high unit costs. A process for undertaking school reviews has been agreed within the School Organisation Plan and the programme of reviews of all primary planning areas is underway. The areas facing review during 2003/04 are those with the highest number of unfilled (and thus potentially surplus) places.

5.6 The secondary population is increasing in the short term. Using September 1997 as a base, numbers in Years 7-11 have risen from 9,934 to 10931 in at September 2003. Forecasts indicate numbers have peaked and will fall back to 10,150 by September 2010. Capital resources have been secured to add approximately 550 places in Keynsham, Norton Radstock and Chew Valley

6. The School Building Stock

6.1 Whilst the Council has targeted its own resources at improving school buildings and has been successful under various DfES bidding initiatives such as New Deal for Schools and Targeted Capital there is still a considerable `backlog' of Repair & Maintenance and upgrading of facilities required. The recent move to annual formulaic allocations over three years of Modernisation funding has provided greater certainty of funding and the Authority has been able to programme a number of major improvement schemes e.g. replacement of temporary classrooms with permanent extensions or new teaching blocks. The resources, however, are not sufficient to fund a major organisational change such as provision of new schools without compromising other targets. The Building Schools for the Future initiative for secondary schools which is covered in more detail in Section 7, and the Government's plans to provide significant additional capital for primary schools may enable both organisational change, where desirable, and improvement programmes to be funded.

6.2 Under the proposed financial strategy to support the draft Corporate Plan provision is made for additional capital through a level of additional unsupported borrowing under the new Prudential Code arrangements. Some of this will be aimed at assisting in achieving the key improvement priorities for education as set out in Para 1.2.

7. Strategic Priorities

7.1 The Statement of Priorities reflects priorities and principles drawn from other relevant plans detailed later in this document. Local and central funding is combined wherever possible to maximise resources and broaden the scope of projects to address a range of needs. Where targeted funds are received e.g. Staff Workspaces Capital, priorities will be determined on the basis of relevant Asset Management Plan priorities and data on condition, suitability and sufficiency. The LEA will continue to take a themed approach to capital investment e.g. removal of worst condition temporary classrooms & ICT facilities so that schools are clear where the LEA's priorities lie. This will help schools identify whether they are likely to be a priority for investment from the Capital Programme or would be better focusing on alternative funding sources such as Devolved Capital & Seed Challenge.

7.2 Notwithstanding the LEA's obligation to address urgent health and safety issues which override other priorities the following order of priorities for investment has been agreed:

7.3 The School Organisation Plan 2003-2008 specifies the future direction of school organisation for the medium term. The Plan approved by the School Organisation Committee in July 2003 reflects the revisions to the process and content of such plans required by the DfES and which came into force in June 2003. This means that after 2003 School Organisation Plans previously published annually will only have to be produced triennially.

7.4 The Council recognises that the removal of surplus capacity in its primary schools cannot be addressed other than by undertaking rigorous strategic reviews of each area. Following consultation with stakeholders a revised School Review Process has been agreed as part of the School Organisation Plan and reviews have been planned for all areas but beginning in those areas with the most significant levels of unfilled places i.e. Keynsham, North & Central Bath and South & Central Bath.

7.5 The position regarding secondary and post-16 education is complicated by the pattern of provision in the Greater Bath Consortium (GBC). Schools with significant levels of unfilled places co-exist with schools experiencing considerable pressure on places and the considerable number of appeals heard each year is testament to the level of parental dissatisfaction with present arrangements. Of the three co-educational-educational schools only one is non-denominational. One of the two co-educational denominational schools has a very large number of surplus places but represents the only Church of England secondary provision in the LEA. The Roman Catholic secondary is heavily oversubscribed. Significant surplus exists at a community boys' school. The school has long expressed a desire to become a co-educational community school but legal advice suggests that we would fall foul of the Sex Discrimination Act if we were to continue to provide sufficient single-sex places for girls but unable to do the same for boys. The School Organisation Plan proposes that a review of secondary provision in the Greater Bath Consortium is initiated in the academic year 2003-04. This will begin with the undertaking of a major survey of parental opinion in the Spring Term. Within the context of the DfES transformation agenda and Building Schools for the Future the opportunity exists to address longstanding issues to produce a pattern of secondary and post-16 provision that meets the needs of generations of young people in the City of Bath.

7.6 Reorganisation within the City may release sites and/or buildings as a result of school relocation, amalgamation or closure. Obtaining land to develop new schools in Bath is recognised as a serious problem and has been included in the Local Plan as an issue. However, the mere identification of this will not have a decisive effect on proposals by the LEA for desirable changes in provision and the certainty that sites are in extremely short supply may prevent proposals moving beyond the embryonic stage. The problems are added to by the fact that of the seven schools in the City only two are owned by the LEA.

7.7 The Building Schools for the Future initiative proposes an unprecedented level of investment in the renewal and replacement of the secondary school building stock from 2005 - 06. The DfES is clear however that proposals must be linked to a strategic plan which proposes a sustainable pattern of provision. All LEAs have been invited to submit an expression of interest by December. As a first step a working group has been established with secondary headteachers to consider the future vision for secondary pupils concentrating on their educational needs within the context of the Government's transformation agenda. With initial priority being given to LEAs with low standards and high levels of deprivation Bath & North East Somerset will not be in the first group of authorities eligible for funding. Announcements in March 2004 of the first and a second larger group of LEAs will identify the likely timescale for funding for this LEA.

7.8 The Radstock Primary Renaissance will see the closure of four primary schools and the opening of two new all through primary schools in September 2005. The re-organisation is also a focus for community regeneration which and will assist in the meeting of other key strategic objectives.

7.9 A range of funding sources is being combined to deliver this new provision; Targeted Capital Funding of £4.6m approved in March 2002 is the major contributor; funding from the LEA's capital allocations for 02-03 and 03-04 for nursery places in deprived areas; a commitment to use funds from the Schools Access Initiative allocations 03-04 and 04-05 to ensure fully accessible facilities; future years Devolved Capital allocations from all four existing schools will also contribute.

7.10 United for the Future

7.11 The Education Development Plan (2) is the key plan to enable the LEA to fulfil its statutory duty to raise standards for its pupils to and improve its schools, so that the LEA at least maintains its high performance compared to other similar LEAs and continues to improve. Targets are aspirational, are set within the objective of achieving the national targets and reflect headteachers' positive commitment to high standards.

7.12 The EDP2 identifies the need to continue to raise standards in Literacy (especially boys' writing) and Numeracy in primary schools. Although the priorities, especially Literacy, apply across the whole LEA, there are geographical areas within the LEA where this is more acute. Notably these are South Bath, Radstock/Writhlington area and part of Keynsham.

7.13 The EDP2 has also identified standards in ICT as a priority at all phases. This was a Key Issue in the LEA's Ofsted report, in the Area Inspection of 16 - 19 provision and in many of the school Ofsted inspection reports. There has been a significant increase in LEA support for schools to increase teacher subject knowledge. The ratio of quality hardware to pupil numbers has also improved. There is now a need for more space and specialist provision in primary schools, and for effective networking to enable teachers to make more efficient use of ICT support and development. Progress has been made in this area through the programme of ICT suites being provided in primary schools which is an AMP Improvement Target. Improving the use of ICT throughout the 14-19 curriculum will require additional provision and networked facilities to accommodation so that students can have immediate and ready access to information sources.

7.14 The development and implementation of a Strategy for Inclusion is a major priority for this LEA in its EDP2. Appropriate provision should be made for a wider range of pupil needs in more establishments, in order to adopt an effective and flexible approach. Some facilities need to be improved in order to provide an appropriate learning environment for permanently excluded pupils.

7.15 Transforming the quality of teaching at Key Stage 3 and addressing the flexible 14 - 19 curriculum are essential strategies for raising standards in the secondary phase and to support the LEA's contribution to the national targets. The LEA has worked with the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) to produce a strategy for 16 - 19 education. The LEA through the 14-19 Strategy Manager is developing this Strategy to bring the 14 - 19 age range within its scope. The Strategy will see increased collaboration between schools and between schools, colleges and other providers, to ensure an extensive curriculum entitlement for all 14 - 19 students. Teaching and learning facilities must reflect these developments and expectations and suitability data will be key in identifying how accommodation or the lack of it impacts on teaching.

7.16 The LEA has a small number of schools where the levels of attainment are causing concern. These schools need support to improve and must not be engaged in any activities, however laudable, that might deflect them from their prime purpose of raising standards. This will create an additional demand on the LEA's support structures particularly in regard to the time consuming processes of asset management.

7.17 Leadership and management lie at the heart of school improvement. Headteachers and their staff must have adequate and appropriate working conditions in which to deliver high quality teaching and learning. Teachers need space to plan and prepare lessons, to work with colleagues and to teach small groups of pupils. The suitability assessment of schools has confirmed the lack of these facilities.

7.18 This LEA has a significant number of higher achieving schools across all phases, that are now able to consider the breadth and depth of the curriculum in more detail. The LEA recognises that the Specialist Schools Programme offers an opportunity to enhance choice and diversity and the majority of the LEA's secondary schools now have designated specialist status including arts, business/enterprise, science/engineering, sports and technology. Investment priorities will need to reflect this diversity and the particular accommodation requirements arising from it.

7.19 The Class Size Plan The LEA met its statutory obligation to ensure classes of no more than 30 infant pupils in September 2000, a year before the legal implementation date. Following an extensive review of its LMS funding formula the LEA is implementing an Activity Led formula. As an integral part of the new formula resources are targeted at schools based on class sizes less than the statutory minimum. The Activity Led approach will ensure that statutory requirements can be adhered to.

7.20 Progress has been made on reducing Key Stage 2 classes, which rose as a result of the implementation of the Class Size Pledge, through money obtained through the Standards Fund for this purpose. Capital funding has provided additional classrooms at two schools.

7.21 The Early Years Development and Childcare Plan identifies the need for quality nursery provision, particularly in socially deprived areas. The national target is for every three year old to have access to free nursery education for 5 X 2.5 hour sessions per week for 33 weeks per year from September 2004. This links with the national priority of raising attainment in early years and primary phase set out in EDP2. The Early Years and Childcare Partnership is currently establishing Neighbourhood Nurseries in Twerton the LEA's most deprived ward, and Keynsham as part of the Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative. Additional LEA places have also recently been provided in Peasedown from January 2003 through the provision of a nursery linked to a primary school. This is partially funded through the DfES capital grant for nurseries in areas of social deprivation. The Authority is also part of the 6^th Wave of Sure Start Programmes to establish cross sector facilities for the most needy children and their families from 0 - 3 years and 11 months. This programme is located in South West Bath, includes Twerton ward, and has had a ten year delivery plan approved. The Authority has recently been granted a small amount of revenue funding to develop Children's Centres and associated services between 2004-2006. The Twerton neighbourhood nursery has received early designation as a children's centre.

7.22 The Behaviour Support Plan promotes inclusion in its widest sense. A Secondary School Learning Support Unit has been developed at St Mark's Secondary School with DfES funding. The LEA met the targets set for the education of excluded pupils by Sept 2002. This includes establishing a Pupil Referral Unit at the Annexe at Wansdyke Special School, Bath which required some minor capital refurbishment. A purpose built unit for KS2 pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties was opened in 2002 on the main site Wansdyke School.

7.23 The Inclusion Strategy is supported by the fusion of three Bath Special Schools into one new purpose - built school. The future evolving use of special schools and increased multi-agency collaboration are key considerations in the development of this major capital project. The School Review Process commits the LEA to reviewing the provision for pupils with SEN every five years.

7.24 As part of the programme to replace poor condition and unsuitable temporary buildings a major investment is being made with the building of the Margaret Coates Centre for autistic pupils scheduled to open in summer 2004. This will provide purpose built provision linked to a mainstream primary school allowing the greater integration of these pupils into mainstream education whilst ensuring that their specialist accommodation needs are met.

7.25 The LEA is committed to exploring the benefits of the Extended Schools Programme and examining ways in which all schools can provide some extended element, possibly in the context of school reorganisation, and aspires to offer a `full-service' school within the timescale set out by DfES. Opportunities to deliver, or facilitate the delivery of, childcare, health and social care, library services, youth services and community education will be sought. The views of other agencies and providers will also be requested in order to assess the practicalities of delivering their services from school sites and buildings.

7.26 The LEA was successful in securing capital funding from the LSC in 2003 for an adult community learning centre in Peasedown, an area of high social deprivation. The centre will be adjacent to Peasedown Primary school which has also recently benefited from the establishment of an LEA nursery (see Para 7.21) and stands next to the LEA youth centre. These developments will provide a focus for community learning in the area with scope for sharing facilities. The scope for delivery of other services will be explored and the library service has already agreed to provide a public access point within the new centre.

7.27 The LEA Access Strategy has enabled a number of schools both primary and secondary to be adapted to provide physical access for disabled pupils and also improved the environment for children with sensory impairments. The LEA has supplemented funds received under the Schools Access Initiative to increase the programme of adaptations. In order to increase access to education in mainstream schools for pupils with special needs, the LEA through the development of its Inclusion Strategy, will consider the provision available in both in order to develop close links between special and mainstream schools. The policy for SEN provision is expected to have a significant impact upon opportunities and achievement of pupils with special learning needs and will enable the LEA to narrow the achievement gap for groups of students. This area is further developed in the LEA's Accessibility Strategy and schools' Accessibility Plans. The aims of the strategy/plan are to improve the physical environment, increase access to the curriculum and social inclusion and improve delivery of written information to disabled pupils. Relevant proposals will continue to be incorporated within the LEA's capital strategy and AMP.

7.28 Security Plan - Although individual schools experience security problems there is no requirement to target capital funds on strategic security priorities. Risk assessments in schools are used to maintain information on perceived risks in schools and to distribute `Security Improvement Funds' on the basis of prioritisation in accordance with assessed need. Contributions are also sought from the Council's Risk Management Budget to support projects.

7.29 The ICT Development Plan integrates the learning and ICT Development Plans of all schools, which have targets for raising educational achievement. NGFL funding has accelerated the pace of providing opportunities for pupils. Over the next 3 years the LEA and its schools plan to ensure full entitlement to ICT at all key stages through innovative approaches to provision and availability of Broadband facilities. Schools are being encouraged to develop ICT, both fixed facilities such as computer suites in tandem with online connectivity to all classrooms and teaching areas. In many secondary schools the development of effective ICT teaching and use by pupils is currently limited by lack of physical space the limited internal telecommunications and electrical infrastructure. Following the programme of investment in primary schools investment will now focus on secondary schools.

8. Priorities arising from premises surveys

8.1 The premises surveys carried out for all schools identify individual condition, sufficiency and suitability needs and provide the database of need supporting the education capital strategy. These needs have to be set within the context of the above major priorities.

8.2 Condition needs greatly exceed the resources available. Bath & North East Somerset is a high delegating authority with 91.6% of the Local Schools Budget being delegated to schools which is above the national average. Responsibility for strategic repairs and maintenance rests with individual Governing Bodies, although 72 out of 86 schools have opted to buy into a centrally managed building maintenance indemnity fund. Condition work is aimed at enhancing the physical learning environment and achieving best value in operation. Higher standards should result from increased staff and pupil morale, better attendance and pupil behaviour and by enabling schools to concentrate time and resources on curriculum issues rather than building defects

8.3 Elimination of hazardous situations which have high Health and Safety implications and other Priority 1 condition work which could potentially result in school closure are the highest priority within the AMP. The condition database provides the information on which to plan a schedule of works to achieve the improvement target of eliminating all category D priority 1 and priority 2 items by 2003. This target is likely to be achieved, although the nature of condition items is that annual review of condition inevitably means that new priority 1 items are identified. A future target should be to annually address all priority 1 items in the year they are identified, and increasingly make inroads into the priority 2 items.

8.4 Bath & North East Somerset has received NDS condition allocations including the VA sector (both actual and indicative) totalling £4.6m for the 3 years 2001-4. £4.1m has been made available to schools as devolved capital over the same period,

8.5 The opportunity is taken, when carrying out condition works, to combine the work with other areas of work arising from suitability surveys or in response to individual government initiatives in order to minimise disruption and achieve better value for money. An improvement target of reducing the number of temporary classrooms in condition category D and C has been set, with the priority given to classrooms used for KS1/2 teaching, specialist teaching and SEN where both condition and suitability issues can be addressed.

8.6 The LEA is actively implementing partnering procurement under the banner of `Rethinking Construction' to ensure that best value is achieved and allow targets to be exceeded within the available funds. Although initial implementation is on major capital projects (Radstock Primary Renaissance and United for the Future) partnering would be equally effective for condition work where continuous improvement targets could compensate for the increasing inflation in capital costs. This inflation is a result of the inability of the local construction industry to provide the capacity required to deal with the increasing level of work available (99% increase in non-housing public sector repair and maintenance in the South-west in the year to 1Q02).

8.7 The benefits of partnering are already being felt in terms of greater integration between contractor and client and a smoother decision-making process. Development of partnering as the basis for future mainstream capital expenditure is a key objective. However, the Council recognises that only continued success in obtaining funding through competitive bidding processes or, ideally, formulaic allocations sufficient in size to allow for whole school replacements, will allow us to sustain these benefits and create medium to long-term strategic partnerships with private sector design and construction professionals.

8.8 The LEA received an indicative allocation of £965,000 in 2002-03 under this initiative and schemes at six secondary schools have been supported. Facilities include a multi use games area, sports hall and artificial turf pitches. Following completion of Stage I of the bid process schools are preparing Stage II of the bids which is a lengthy and complex process. Deadline for submission of bids is March 2004.

Energy and Water consumption targets

8.9 The LEA will benchmark water and fuel consumption against other LEA in the Mid West Energy Group. The Authority will also benchmark schools against any national benchmarks published by the DfES in line with the government's international commitments and the published Climate Change Strategy.

8.10 Following a reassessment of all primary and secondary schools in 2002 comprehensive agreed by Headteachers is now available. A ranking system has been developed which compares numbers and size of spaces against model schedules for primary and secondary schools. This together with condition data, value for money and standards issues, links to other plans etc will inform capital investment decisions.

9. Basic Principles Underlying Capital Investment

9.1 The LEA is working with schools in developing school based Asset Management Plans for the maintenance and development of their premises to ensure that delegated and devolved funds are used in an appropriate way. A model of an asset management plan has been issued to schools and examples of best practice will be disseminated to Headteachers. Schools are provided with information through condition surveys to enable them to develop a planned maintenance programme that ensures that schools act as responsible stewards of their premises. Training on asset management is also provided as part of the governors support programme.

9.2 In light of the substantial amount of devolved capital available to schools and following feedback from the DfES, guidance to schools on the use of devolved capital has been extensively revised. The guidance sets out clear expectations of governors regarding their stewardship responsibilities, the alignment between LEA and school priorities and a checklist to ensure that projects are developed with the necessary technical and professional advice. Schools are required to identify specific links with School Development Plan and/or their asset management plan priorities as part of the project approval process.

9.3 The review of outputs against last year's targets and the consequent effect on current targets is shown at Appendix A.

9.4 The LEA has identified the need to develop its option appraisal processes in line with guidance in `Finding the Right Solution ` to ensure that investment is maximised and that financial and non financial elements are considered.

Design standards

9.5 The LEA strongly supports the principles laid out in the DfES publication, `Schools for the future - designs for learning communities'. These design standards are being applied for the new Radstock primary schools and will be integrated into the LEA's processes in order to achieve best value solutions wherever possible.

Procurement and project delivery

9.6 The Council has embraced good practice in procurement in line with `Rethinking Construction' and is procuring two new primary schools in Radstock through partnering with a major regional contractor for design and construction. It is our intention to procure the new multiple needs special school (a project known as `United for the Future') on the same basis.

9.7 The increases in capital funding from DfES in recent years and the consequent effect on the size of the LEA's capital programme, along with non-education increased capital expenditure, has increased the workload of Property Services. The ability of schools to fund projects through devolved capital has also had an impact with schools wishing to use Property Services to develop schemes. To alleviate this every new project is assessed to ensure that the most appropriate procurement method is used to ensure delivery within time, budget and to the required quality. The LEA is looking for innovative approaches to project procurement and in addition to partnering is increasingly using design and build, external design consultants and negotiated tenders to ensure targets are met.

9.8 On completion of all capital projects (excluding smaller planned maintenance works) a post project review is undertaken to ensure that lessons are learnt for the future and continuous improvement demonstrated in delivery of the capital programme.

10. Capital Programme

10.1 The resultant capital programme covers the period to 2005-06. A summary is attached at Appendix B . The improvement targets reflect the same period as the capital programme and are a subset of the LEA's key performance indicators.

Funding sources

10.2 Current funding sources are shown in Appendix C. Historically, the level of expenditure on each priority has largely been determined by the funding sources. However, in future, the LEA will have greater scope in bringing together various funding sources to target resources in the most effective manner. Governing Bodies will have similar flexibility taking account of the priorities identified in the Authority's Asset Management Plan and the premises requirements of their School Development Plan. Announcement of indicative DfES allocations for a 3-year period assists in developing a strategic approach to the joining up of funding sources to achieve best value. In future years, it is expected that the number of AMP Priority funding sources will diminish allowing greater flexibility in the allocation of resources. At that stage, the AMP should be sufficiently embedded to allow identification and prioritisation of need across all areas rather than relying on DfES funding allocations to provide resource allocations to individual areas of need.

10.3 It must be recognised however that those LEAs not included in the early years of `Building Schools for the Future' will not have access to comparable alternative levels of funding. Without a retargeting of other funding streams exclusively to those LEAs then major change in the secondary sector in pursuit of an agreed strategic vision will be impossible to deliver.

Appendix B

Major Projects

Education Capital Programmes & Sources of Funding