Notes of Meeting27 September2012
Present:John Dennis, Sheree HyderLynn Keeley, Grahame Ward,
Marisa White, Bruce MacQuarrie,Alison Osborne,Phil Sayer (Chair),
Simon Foulkes, John Hoadly
Apologies: Nigel Brown, Mike Baldwin, Alan Barham, Roland Gooding,
David Metcalfe, Terry Whitlock
Item No / Minutes / Action by:Introduction and welcome to the new members.
Grahame Ward, John Hoadly and Marisa Whiting were welcomed to the Group.
Addendum-: Kim Stoner, Head Teacher St Georges Broadstairs has agreed to join the Group
- 1.
JD proposed and GW seconded John Hoadly for the
position of Vice Chair. The Group agreed unanimously.
Minutes of Previous Meeting
Minutes of 13 June meeting were agreed as a true and accurate record.
Agreed notesare published on Kent Trust Web. / SH
- 2.
Maintenance Condition Programme 2012/13-SH to send GW and JH copy of Programmelist.
CRB Checks - BM to seekviews of Safe Guarding Board about arrangements for CRBchecks of consultants and contractors
DSG Programme – An E Bulletin has been issued informing schools of the balance of funding still available for bids. The School Capital and Premises Development Team continue to promote the programme to schools. / SH
BM
- 3.
The KF&RS have advised that as from April 2012 all calls from automatic fire alarms will be challenged by the Services 999 staff, during the day, 6am – 6pm, unless the incident can be confirmed to be an actual fire an engine will not be sent.
For a further year, until April 2013, a fire engine will be sent to calls to automatic fire alarms received at night, 6pm – 6am.
The Group expressed their grave concerns and felt these changes to be totally unacceptable. BM to raise with senior colleagues with the LA.
There are also concerns as to the accuracy of school contact details, agreed BM/SH to link with Lindsey Torode in her work with schools emergency planning. / BM
SH/BM
- 4.
BM confirmed an E-Bulletin has been issued to schools providing advice on a range of energy/cost saving schemes and opportunities for seeking energy loan funding.
- 6.
BM advised the Group that any change to the funding arrangements for school capital investment is not now expected until after the next comprehensive spending review.At present the DfE continues to confirm funding allocations on a year by year basis.
National Condition Survey
Following the provision of school condition data to the EFA (Education Funding Agency) EC Harris is undertaking pilot surveys at a percentage of schools. (SH to circulate the list of pilot schools to the Group) If the results of the EC Harris pilot surveys accord with the data gathered by Kentit will not be necessary for a separate EFA national survey to be undertaken forKent schools. The EFA will instead import Kent gathered data into a national data base.
The information gathered will be used to inform the 2014-15 comprehensive spending review.
School Premise Regulations
Following a formal consultation the DfE are introducing revised school premises regulations. These will apply to both state and independent schools. It is anticipated the regulations will come into force 31 October 2012 for maintained schools and January 2013 for independent schools.
The Government has produced non statutory guidance supporting the revised regulations. The Group expressed concerns that the regulations do not give any guidanceabout class rooms. The Group were advised that this is provided within “building bulletins”. The existing bulletins are in the process of revision in line with the new school premises regulations.
The Government is looking at reductions in school total floor areas the following reductions have been suggested
5% for Primary schools, 15% Secondary and 25% SpecialSchools. The currentKent Design Brief is more generous than existing DfE guidance and will need to be reviewed in the light of revised national guidance. It was noted that Academy and FreeSchools funding from Government will be based on the revised Standard. The new standards will apply to projects delivered as part of the Priority School Building Programme.
Standardised Design
New baseline designs are being developed, announcements are awaited. / SH
- 7.
The three year medium plan makes assumptions about future levels of government funding for school building work. As grant funding for only 2012/13 has been confirmed and, future maintenance grant funding will reduce as schools move into the academy sector caution is being exercised over programmes of spendrequiring funding support using money that is still subject to confirmation.
The need for a significant programme of spend to support the provision of additional school places was noted. Work is underway developing projects to provide additional school places for 2013-14 and beyond
As noted and discussed at previous meetings work is taking place to identify a suitable way of prioritising school needs to arrive at a methodology to support decision making on the use of modernisation money. Currently the funding priority is to ensure the provision of sufficient school places.
The Group expressed concerns regarding the impact of the national changes to school revenue funding and the effect in particular on special schools.
- 8.
The list of schools was announced by Secretary of State on 24th May.
261 schools are included in programme, 42 of which are funded by capital grant. Those capital grant projects are for schools with urgent condition needs. All special schools on the approvedlist are to be funded by grant. The rest of the programme is to be delivered as PFI projects.
The EFA is to be responsible for delivering the programme, schools will be grouped into batches. The start quarters for the 14 Kent schools have been confirmed. CastleCommunitySchool submitted its bid direct to the DfE. BM to include the school on Kent’s list of EFA approved bids for future reporting purposes.
The Group were advised that the EFA will contact schools. KCC is seeking the opportunity to engage in the programme delivery.
The Group expressed concerns that those schools on the list did not reflect Kent’s bids/worse schools. / BM
- 9.
LK gave a progress report on maintenance works undertaken during the Summer break.
LK is investigating developing the Consultants Performance Monitoring to include a wider range of topics (the monitor includes the whole of Kent’s estate).
The delivery of the Additional School Places programme 2012 was managed by the Operations Team managed by LK.
The Quarterly Consultant Meeting report and monitor to be circulated to the Group / LK
LK
- 10.
LK advised that release of the revised Class Care has been delayed as further discussion is required, i.e., Package 1 and provision to Academy. In the meantime an initial scheme is available for schools.
Reports
LK informed the Group that discussions with the Project Teamaretaking place to look at improving the use oflifecycle costing at the design stage of projects.
LK offered to make recommendations for additional reports to aid future meetings of the Group. / LK
LK
LK
- 11.
12 December 2012, 8am for 8.15 start
Venue –Oakwood House Maidstone. ME16 8AE
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