MIDDLESBROUGH COUNCIL

AGENDA ITEM

Schools Capital to 2015

Brenda Thompson, Executive Member for Children’s Services

Mike Robinson , Executive Director of Wellbeing, Care & Learning

7 March 2014

PURPOSE OF THE REPORT

  1. To seek approval of the children’s services capital programme covering the two years of 2013/14 and 2014/15 as part a rolling programme of investment in Middlesbrough’s school buildings.
SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS
  1. It is recommended that the Executive:

·  Agrees the allocation of the capital programme for 2013/15 included at Appendix B of the report.

IF THIS IS A KEY DECISION WHICH KEY DECISION TEST APPLIES?

3.  / It is over the financial threshold (£150,000) / a
It has a significant impact on 2 or more wards
Non Key

DECISION IMPLEMENTATION DEADLINE

4.  For the purposes of the scrutiny call in procedure this report is

Non-urgent / a
Urgent report

If urgent please give full reasons


BACKGROUND AND EXTERNAL CONSULTATION

  1. Responsibility for the upkeep of community school buildings is shared between schools and the local authority. Schools are responsible for general maintenance, repairs and minor capital works while the local authority is responsible for major capital schemes including the replacement of substantial parts of the buildings and the provision of new buildings. In order to reflect this shared responsibility, the Department for Education (DfE) makes regular allocations of capital funding to both the council and its schools.
  1. Schools are expected to use their school budget share to maintain buildings but receive an annual allocation of Devolved Formula Capital (DFC) from the DfE to support school-led capital projects. In the case of community schools, this funding is passported to them via the local authority, which retains an advisory and monitoring role.
  1. The council receives two allocations of capital funding from the DfE:

·  An annual allocation of capital maintenance funding to spend on maintaining and improving community school buildings.

·  Basic Need funding targeted at adding new school places in areas where there are shortages. This funding is not limited to be spent on community schools and can be spent on voluntary aided schools and academies.

  1. Occasional targeted capital funds are also sometimes made available to tackle government policy initiatives.
  1. While overall levels of funding have fallen over recent years, the DfE have shifted the split of available funding giving a higher proportion to local authorities and less to schools. This ensures that spending can be targeted to greatest need and that local authorities can undertake high value, strategic schemes that would be unaffordable by schools on their own.
  1. This report sets out the proposed programme of capital works funded from the council’s funding allocations announced in 2013/14 and funds carried forward from previous years. The programme is submitted now to enable officers to arrange contractors to be on school sites over the summer break, minimising disruption to teaching and learning.
  1. More recently, the DfE have announced further capital allocations to Middlesbrough as follows:

·  Universal Infant Free School Meals – £261,033 in 2014/15

·  Capital Maintenance Allowance – £947,056 in 2014/15

·  LA Devolved Capital Formula - £212,413 in 2014/15

·  Basic Need – £726,677 in 2015/16 and £763,011 in 2017/18

  1. These announcements arrived too late in the planning process to enable schemes flowing from them to be included in the capital programme. Therefore, no consideration of these allocations has been made in the preparation of the programme appended to this report. These allocations will be the subject of a future report once schemes have been identified and prioritised and a subsequent programme designed.
Capital announcements made in 2013/14
  1. A summary of the capital funding allocations announced in 2013/14 is shown in the table below. Funding is calculated on a formulaic basis by the DfE and ring-fenced to be spent on schools.
  1. Overall, the value of the 2013/14 allocation is 47% lower than in 2012/13 as a result of:

·  A 90% reduction in Basic Need funding as a consequence of changes in the DfE’s allocation formula. Funding has fallen from £1,275,286 in 2012/13 to £127,598 in each of the years 2013/14 and 2014/15.

·  A £449k reduction in maintenance capital including reductions as a consequence of academy conversions.

Capital Grant / 2013/14 announcements
Maintenance Capital – supports the condition/ suitability needs of LA schools
/ LA / 1,169,945
Basic Need Capital- supports new school places and school expansions.
/ LA / 255,195
/ 1,425,140
Devolved Formula Capital (DFC) – passed to schools for improvements and capital repairs/refurbishment
/ Schools / 295,666
Total
/ 1,720,806
  1. DFC and maintenance capital are calculated on the number of schools and pupils in the local authority. Basic need funding is calculated on the basis of DfE estimates of projected shortages of school places in Middlesbrough.
  1. In addition to the DFC and capital maintenance funding above, voluntary aided schools receive similar capital funding directly from the DfE. Therefore, £110,932 DFC and £444,779 maintenance capital has been allocated to voluntary aided schools, managed by the schools and the Diocese of Middlesbrough. The local authority has no control over how this funding is spent.
  1. In 2013/14, the DfE made a 2-year allocation of Basic Need funding covering the years 2013/14 and 2014/15. All of this funding is included in the table above and has been factored into the capital programme at Appendix B.
  1. As DFC is passported to schools, it cannot be directly accessed by the council, meaning that the balance of these allocations available for the capital programme is £1,425,140. Officers seek school contributions of approximately 15% from DFC or schools’ own funding to support the schemes in the capital programme.
  1. A full statement of the funding available to support the capital programme is included at Appendix A. The programme is managed across a multi-year period. Including balances brought forward from previous years and housing developer contributions, the total amount of funding currently available to spend on the capital programme is £5.1m, to be further supplemented by school contributions.

Capital programme

  1. The capital programme at appendix B covers the two years 2013/14 and 2014/15. This is a reduction on the three year programme agreed by Executive last year. This is a pragmatic approach, only seeking agreement to those schemes that it is felt can be afforded within available funding and projections of future allocations. As more schools convert to academy status it is unclear how quickly future allocations will decrease in value.
  1. Many of the schemes in the programme have been developed throughout the 2013/14 financial year ready for implementation in 2014/15. While not all of the schemes require Executive approval in their own right, they are included in the programme for the purposes of completeness and transparency.
  1. A number of schemes included in the programme are for schools which have recently converted to academies, or are likely to convert in the near future. The schemes were identified as a priority prior to conversion and funding for these schools has been included in the allocations received by the authority. The DfE expect the authority to be reasonable with the allocation of capital funding to academies in their first year of conversion where they have missed the opportunity to benefit from the DfE’s academies capital maintenance fund.
  1. The programme includes a number of strategic schemes to increase school provision:

Enlargement of Linthorpe Primary School – an enlargement of 70 places across the full age range to address the pressure for places being felt in the centre of town. In addition to adding classrooms, the scheme will address suitability issues which would otherwise prevent the school admitting more pupils e.g. small classrooms.

Enlargement of Breckon Hill Primary School – the final stage in a series of adaptations to enlarge the school by a further 105 places to meet pressures.

Special Educational Needs (SEN) increases – schemes to increase capacity at two special schools catering for pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Severe Learning Difficulties and a potential ASD base at Acklam Grange. This is an urgent priority due to the increase in the number of children with complex needs, particularly young children. It should be noted that there is no specific funding allocation from DfE for specialist provision so this has to come from the overall funding envelope.

Work is still being undertaken to identify options for enlargement of these schools. As a result, a notional figure of £2 million has been factored into the programme as a planning assumption for these schemes and a number of other increases in SEN provision.

Expansion of Lingfield Primary School – a scheme to reconfigure and enlarge a number of classrooms to address need brought about by local housing development. Funding for the scheme is predominantly from developer contributions and the school.

Enlargement of Pallister Park Primary School – The school has approached the council with tentative proposals to increase capacity by 105 places. Funding is set aside in the programme for a potential repayable advance to the school should the governing body determine that they wish to proceed.

  1. A number of schemes which were included in the 2012/15 capital programme were subsequently not progressed due to unforeseen increases in cost. These schemes have been re-visited, the cost estimates updated and have been resubmitted in the programme:

·  Ayresome Primary School – structural repairs

·  Captain Cook Primary School– roof repairs

·  Holmwood Special School – roof repairs

·  Newham Bridge Primary School – roof repairs

  1. A number of new maintenance and suitability schemes have been included where they are a high priority. Schemes have been prioritised to address those schools with the most urgent need, or to secure best value for money as part of a large scheme or group purchase. These include the replacement of kitchen extracts at seven schools, arising from recommendations following health and safety inspections Details are include in Appendix B
  1. Caldicotes Primary school was included in a strategic scheme planned as part of the Primary Strategy for Change (PSfC) which would see it merge with two other schools. Following the early withdrawal of PSfC funding the scheme could not be progressed, leaving a legacy of underinvestment at Caldicotes. As part of their conversion to become an academy in April 2013 an amount of £200,000 was agreed as a capital contribution to repairing the school’s roof and mechanical services.
  1. The capital programme will be monitored to reflect the implementation of projects, emerging new policies and initiatives by funding bodies and amended in the light of progress of projects and available funding.

IMPACT ASSESSMENT (IA)

28.  The capital programme has been subject to a level one impact assessment. This assessment is included at Appendix C. No negative differential impacts have been identified.

OPTION APPRAISAL/RISK ASSESSMENT

  1. The proposed capital programme has prioritised individual school projects based on the condition and suitability of buildings, place planning requirements and the urgency of the work in-line with the Middlesbrough Capital Strategy and Asset Management Plan and Place Planning Strategy.
  1. The programme is predominantly targeted at primary and special schools. There is currently no requirement to invest significantly in secondary schools, which have all recently been replaced through the BSF programme.
  1. Risks associated with individual projects will be assessed by the Asset Management team in conjunction with Design Services as project briefs and inception studies are progressed.
  1. While the local authority has responsibility for major/significant capital schemes in community schools, responsibility for maintenance and minor capital schemes are delegated for schools. The authority relies upon schools to keep their buildings properly maintained in order to reduce the number of schemes which fall to the council to fund. School-led schemes funded through DFC are monitored to ensure they meet the relevant funding criteria and schools and the condition of schools is surveyed every five years.
  1. The number of pupils born and living in Middlesbrough is set to continue increasing, placing some primary schools under pressure for places with anticipated pressure for secondary school places expected within the next five years. The programme includes schemes to tackle this pressure but it is anticipated that further school enlargements will be required. This must be set against the context of anticipated reducing levels of capital funding in-line with the reductions already set out in the report.

FINANCIAL, LEGAL AND WARD IMPLICATIONS

  1. Financial – The council takes a multi-year approach to funding the children’s services capital programme. Appendix A gives a summary of the funding available for the programme. DfE has recently announced capital allocations for future years
  1. Devolved Formula Capital Grant is shown in the appendix, although this cannot be directly accessed by the council without prior agreement of the schools. These figures include the 2013/14 allocations for local authority schools plus balances carried forward from previous years.
  1. The total funding currently available for the programme is therefore £5.1m plus school contributions.
  1. It is anticipated that further DfE capital allocations will be made to Middlesbrough Council in the years 2014/15 and beyond, although as schools continue to convert to academies it is expected that these allocations will be lower than in recent years.
  1. Ward Implications – The capital programme covers schools widely distributed across the town. There are no specific ward implications.
  1. Ward members will be consulted on individual building schemes where appropriate or as part of school organisation procedures where these are necessary for school enlargements.
RECOMMENDATIONS
  1. It is recommended that Executive:

·  Agrees the allocation of the capital programme for 2013/15 included at Appendix B of the report.

REASONS

  1. To ensure that the funding available is spent on schemes within the Children, Families and Learning property portfolio.
  1. To fulfil the Council’s statutory duty to ensure sufficient school places are available and to meet suitability and condition requirements.
  1. To enable the implementation of school building projects to improve the teaching and learning environments
BACKGROUND PAPERS

There were no background papers used in the preparation of this report.