Issue details

The Council retains the legal responsibility for pupil place planning and has a statutory duty to provide sufficient school places for every child who is resident and requires a place. Due to an increasing demand for secondary school places in the Greater Bath Consortium (GBC) and following discussions with Council Officers, Oldfield School put forward a proposal that the Council supports a Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) bid they are submitting to the DfE which would enable the school to expand their current accommodation and allow them to admit additional pupils in the future. The current Planned Admission Number (PAN) is 180 and will rise to 224 once works have been completed.
CIF is allocated on an annual basis by the DfE direct to academies and free schools to support condition and expansion projects. Oldfield School is an academy.
To allocate £282,000 from provisionally approved 2018-19 Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funds to support Oldfield School’s bid to deliver additional places.
Failure to provide sufficient places in the right areas will result in the Council failing in its statutory duty; parents and children being required to travel out of their locality to attend another school; increased transport (revenue) costs and schools being unable to take local children.