Decision details

The County Council has a statutory duty to ensure there are sufficient primary and secondary school places for all children who need a place.  The number of pupil places needed is reviewed annually and pupil projections for the Worthing and Durrington locality of schools show there is a significant surplus provision of places at primary schools in the borough. It is incumbent on the County Council to ensure efficient use of public funds and to ensure that there is sufficient surplus provision to allow an element of parental choice but not to the extent that this leads to inefficient use of public funds or a level of surplus that compromises the schools’ financial sustainability.  

An excess of vacant places in schools creates a number of financial challenges, particularly as the school funding model is based on the number of pupils actually on roll.  It has been acknowledged that the Worthing and Durrington planning areas have a significant surplus in primary school places and, as such, is increasing financial and organisational challenges in some schools. Primary schools in Worthing and Durrington have approached the County Council to discuss opportunities to reduce this surplus across the community.

Following extensive engagement with all schools in the locality a mutually agreeable set of proposals has been developed which plans a phased reduction of the current surplus places by 953 between 2024 and 2027.  This includes a reduction in the Published Admission Number (PAN) in some primary schools, potential removal of some temporary accommodation and consolidation of provision in one area through the creation of an all through primary school from separate Infant and Junior schools. The proposals also aim to use some of the surplus provision to create additional specialist provision. This still leaves sufficient surplus to manage any planned building developments within the district.

Additional proposals for three schools - Lyndhurst Infant, Chesswood Junior and Springfield Infant are included as part of the options for future management of places and continuity of education and will be set out in the consultation exercise.

It is now proposed to launch a public consultation to seek views on the proposed solutions to help remove surplus primary school places across the Worthing and Durrington area.

The Cabinet Member for Learning and Skills has approved: -

(1)That the County Council launches a public consultation on proposed solutions to reduce the number of primary school places across the Worthing and Durrington area, with effect from September 2024 entry, as set out in section 2 of the report.

(2)That authority is delegated to the Assistant Director (Education and Skills), in consultation with the cabinet member, to determine, following an analysis of the outcomes of the public consultation, whether the reduction in the Published Admission Numbers of the schools listed in paragraph 2.2 should proceed and to confirm the revised numbers to meet the deadline of 31st January 2023 for implementation in September 2024.

(3)That where the proposed solution means a significant change with respect of the re-organisation of provision between existing infant and junior schools, the authority in 2) above includes action to seek cabinet member approval for consulting on formalising such changes and making representation to the Department for Education.

None