Agenda item

Report by Director of Children, Young People and Learning.

The Committee is asked to assess the County Council’s approach to school place planning as set out in the draft Planning School Places Document 2024.

38.1     The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Learning and Skills, Cllr Russell, introduced the report highlighting the challenges in forecasting requirement for sufficient school places impacted by fluctuating birth rates, shifts in parental preference, academy schools setting their admissions levels, new housing developments moving areas of habitation, migration and delays in the building of new schools.

38.2     The members of the Committee asked questions and a summary of those questions and answers follows.

38.3     The impact of previous reviews of school provision had not been assessed although they were overseen by Ofsted and there had been no indication that arrangements had been inappropriate.  A member was concerned that the qualitative outcomes of organisational changes, in terms of the experience of children and attainment, is not looked at.

38.4     Committee members asked officers to ensure there were clear, widely promoted, communications for parents and pupils included in the Planning School Places document and on the County Council website, particularly for areas where it was known there was pressure on school places and pupils might not get any of their preferred options, including clear information around the transport implications of attending a school further away.  The challenges in Southwater area last year and the increase in a preference for co-educational places was acknowledged.  Schools and the County Council have encouraged parents and carers to visit a wider number of schools to see what they could offer their child.

38.5     Committee members also felt that local county councillors should be informed of any areas where high numbers of parental preferences were not met before school places were issued.  They felt briefings by district and borough areas would be useful.  Officers advised that there had been briefings to the County Local Committees in previous years and officers would be happy to provide briefings at meetings of a similar format.  Members also wanted to be more involved at an earlier stage of the Planning School Places process so that they could feed in local knowledge.

38.6     Members felt that those who had not received any of their preference school places should be given the priority for an independent appeal of the decision before those who had been given a chosen preference option but still chose to appeal.  Officers agreed to investigate the legal implications of this request. 

38.7     Members asked for more information on alternative provision to be provided in the document to confirm if there are sufficient placements and if not, how long a pupil might need to wait for a placement.  Action: Officers agreed to supply some further information to the Committee on how this experience might be for a family and what resilience is built into the provision. 

38.8     Members were assured that accurate information was held on children who elected to be home educated.  Children missing from school are regularly monitored and could lead to elective home education (EHE) arrangements being established.

38.9     The County Council does not hold information on how many children in West Sussex attend independent schools.  Officers were reviewing the potential impact of the Government proposal to remove tax incentives to independent school provision.  However, in the past there had not been an influx of pupils coming to the local education authority when an independent school closed, as parents tended to relocate their students to other independent schools.  The County Council has had experience in dealing with unexpected influxes of pupils, such as when families are displaced from elsewhere in the world, and the number of surplus school places held across the county gives flexibility to place pupils.

38.10  Members asked that in areas where there were expected to be applications in excess of planned admission numbers, such as Adur, that information be made available for parents covering areas such as travel costs. Officers confirmed they had held information sessions for families in the Shoreham area and were committed to holding more to work with the secondary schools to increase the amount of information available to parents.  Officers also confirmed that conversations were taking place with two schools in the Adur area on how to increase the number of places available.  A study is underway with the schools and see if the expansion of those schools is something the County Council would wish to explore, including the funding of capital for the costs of the provision.  The outcome of the feasibility study is expected in the spring.

38.11  Members expressed concern that, with growing numbers of academy schools in the county, who were in control of their own admission numbers, that the County Council had fewer negotiating powers when it came to creating more school places.  Members were reassured that lobbying of Government on this issue was taking place. The County Council would also continue to have dialogue with all schools on school places and particular pressure areas.

38.12  Members were reassured that officers regularly reviewed district and borough council local plans and areas of housing development when planning school places.  It was acknowledged that the development of housing on the edge of one district or borough could impact on the demand for school places in another.  When there were delays in the development of new schools the County Council has responsibility to mitigate the delay in delivery.

38.13  Members requested that there be greater clarity on Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND ) provision and future planning with the document.

38.14  The Chairman had further questions but would put them in writing to the officers.  It was agreed that the responses to those questions would be shared with the Committee and on the public record.

38.15  Resolved – That the Committee:

1.       Highlights the importance of getting school place planning right, and the educational and social impact the allocated school can have on children and their families.

2.   Raises the importance of having clear communication for parents and families particularly in areas where there are pressures on school places.  The Committee asks that there is a clear plan in place for this, including clear information around transport implications, and that this is set out in the Planning School Places document and on the website. 

3.   Asks that there is further and more detailed information on SEND provision within the Planning School Places document.

4.   Asks that County Councillor engagement is more robust and would welcome consultation with members on a district and borough level to be able to feed into the school place planning process.

5.   Raises the importance of resilience within school place planning and asks that the impacts of wider pressures and risks, and how these will be managed are more clearly set out in the Planning School Places report. 

6.   Asks the service to explore if appeals hearings for those who do not gain one of their first 3 school preferences could be prioritised and if this would benefit those families.

7.   Recognises the challenge of increasing numbers of schools becoming academies on the County Council's influence on school place planning and welcomes the continued lobbying of Government to highlight the risk around this.