Issue - meetings

The Executive Board will consider the attached report on 12^th December. An update will be provided at the Council meeting.

            The Leader advised that a Cross Party Members’ Advisory Working Group had met on Monday to consider the responses in respect of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) proposals and had made a number of recommendations to the Executive Board that morning. A copy of the draft minutes of the Executive Board’s meeting were tabled for Members’ information.

            It was noted that the Executive Board had considered a number of key issues including:

• zone lines;
• school size;
• pupil numbers;
• choice;
• the consultation process;
• an alternative proposal submitted by Fairfield High School;
• hard federation;
• Halton High School; and
• the workforce strategy.

In respect of the proposal from Fairfield High School, there was uncertainty regarding a number of elements and so Members had been advised that, at the current time, the proposal should be rejected as incomplete and flawed. However, the School had the opportunity to consider the questions raised by the Working Group in terms of revisiting the proposal as part of the formal statutory consultation process.

With regard to Halton High School, it had been confirmed that the term “closure” was purely technical and, in practice, there would be no loss of provision.

The Council noted that the team working on BSF had done their best to respond to all queries received, and the public involvement in this process was commended.

RESOLVED: That the Building Schools for the Future proposals set out in the report of the Strategic Director – Children and Young People considered by the Executive Board on 12^th December 2007 be supported.

The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director – Children & Young People providing a summary of the process undertaken for the second round of pre-statutory consultation on the reorganisation of secondary schools and secondary special school provision. A summary of the responses received at the time that the report was produced was provided and key issues outlined .

In addition, a further update on the outcome of the consultation, along with recommended proposals for the next stage of consultation, were tabled for consideration. This information had not been available previously as the consultation period had only concluded on 7^th December 2007: the Cross Party Members’ Advisory Working Group had subsequently met on 10^th December 2007.

A number of key issues had arisen from the consultation process and these were considered by the Board in detail as follows:

Zone Lines

            It was advised that the local authority had to go through an Admissions Forum Process each year and any movement of the proposed zone line would be part of that process. It was possible that the zone line could move location; however, this would be for specific reasons, for example if there was a major build in the area and the school could no longer cope with the number of pupils coming through.

            Should the school apply for Trust Status at some time in the future, it would be responsible for its own Admissions criteria; however, any changes to the admission arrangements would have to be agreed with the local authority. If the local authority did not agree with the proposed changes, and could not come to a compromise with the school governing body, the matter would be taken to the School Adjudicator. Discussions had been held with the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and, although it could not be guaranteed, it was anticipated that the school would be expected to follow the policies that the Council had set out.

School Size

Concerns had been raised about the potential size of some schools and whether they would be too big. It was considered that, if managed correctly, schools could be successful regardless of their size. This was evidenced by the schools currently within the Borough, which showed no correlation between size and performance.

There was a consensus that 750 should be the lowest number and officers had been advised that, if a school was kept open despite falling rolls, the Authority would be seriously challenged about its use of resources as, due to the funding formula, there was a negative impact on a school’s budget should the numbers on roll fall.

Pupil Numbers

            It was advised that Building Schools for the Future (BSF) required that the Authority forecast pupil numbers for the period 2007-2017 using National Statistics Data, which had been done. However, as this data was not broken down across Runcorn and Widnes, further forecasting had been carried out using the numbers already in the Borough’s primary schools, together with Primary Care Trust data based  ...  view the full minutes text for item 67