Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 In December 2003 the Council along with all English local authorities were asked by the DfES to submit expressions of interest under the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) initiative. In November 2004 the Government announced the outcome of the expressions of interest; for Bath & North East Somerset Council this meant that the authority would receive funding to rebuild one secondary school by 2011.

1.2 On the 15 June 2006 the DfES advised of the acceleration of the programme and invited the Council along with a number of other local authorities to take up funding for a one-school pathfinder project as a `down payment' on BSF with project completion required by 2009. All invited Councils have to respond to the DfES by 14 July 2006 to indicate whether or not they wish to take up the funding in accordance with DfES terms and conditions.

2 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 Note the offer of funding in respect of one-school pathfinder

2.2 Note the risks implicit in a buildings scheme of this scale and timescale

2.3 Authorise the Chief Executive and Leader of the Council to advise the DfES that the Council wishes to take up the offer of funding

2.4 Pending further clarification by the DfES on timescale instruct officers to bring a report to a future meeting of the Council Executive with recommendations for the pathfinder school based on the DfES criteria set out in paragraph 4.1

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 Once the school has been chosen its pupil data will be entered into the DfES calculator to arrive at the capital funding for that school and this cannot be varied once submitted to the DfES. The amount of capital available to the Council ranges from will be determined by the size of school but to give Members an indication in phase 1 of the one school pathfinder Council's received £20m - £25m. The DfES are proposing to fund the project by a 100% capital grant with 25% payable in 2007-08, 50% in 2008-09 and 25% in 2009-10.

3.2 Once the scheme is completed the school will be responsible for maintaining the building from its delegated budget share in line with normal school funding arrangements.

3.3 In considering the offer of funding, members should note that the scheme would be the single largest school building project undertaken by the Council. The Government backed Partnerships for Schools(PfS) is establishing a procurement framework from September 2006 which the Council will have access to should it wish to pursue procurement of its one-school pathfinder through this vehicle. This may involve joint procurement with other Councils in the pathfinder scheme to achieve economies of scale and value for money. Councils wishing to use their own procurement arrangements will be asked to demonstrate value for money against the PfS procurement framework. DfES will provide further information about this in due course.

4 THE REPORT

4.1 The DfES require that the chosen project must be consistent with the authority's long term existing secondary strategy and Children and Young People Plan. In addition the chosen project must meet the following mandatory requirements.

(1) links to school improvement targets and how the project will contribute to raising standards

(2) the chosen school must have high suitability and condition need

(3) the need to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, including excellent science

(4) the need to support an area approach to delivery of the 14-19 entitlement

(5) the extended schools/community use agenda, in line with the extended schools prospectus

(6) the need to embed the use of ICT across the curriculum

(7) how the project will address: provision for special educational needs, workforce reform, school meals/kitchens provision

(8) the project should aim for completion and ready for occupation by September 2009

4.2 The authority has to respond to the DfES by 14 July on whether or not it wishes to take up the funding and provide the named person who will be the main contact for the project. The letter has to be signed by the Chief Executive and the Leader of the Council.

4.3 The timescale for the overall process is as follows:

4.4 It is for the Council to select the school based on its Asset Management Plan (AMP) data and it should be a school with a high level of condition and suitability needs. In addition to this data Gleeds consultants have recently completed a survey of all secondary schools commissioned in preparation for BSF and this information will also be used to assist in identifying which school has the highest need.

5 RISK MANAGEMENT

6 RATIONALE

6.1 The acceleration of the BSF pathfinder scheme provides an opportunity for the Council to make an unprecedented level of investment in a single secondary school in advance of further significant funding for other secondary schools in future years. This is in line with the key Council priority of improving the learning environment and will supplement the major capital investment being made by the Council in our primary and special schools.

7 CONSULTATION

7.1 At this stage all secondary schools have been informed of the one school pathfinder scheme. Once the school to benefit from the investment is selected consultation with the school and the wider community is a mandatory DfES requirement.