Item: 8 Page: 104 Education & Children’s Services REPORT TO EDUCATION & CHILDREN’S SERVICES COMMITTEE – 5 DECEMBER 2019 SUITABILITY CORE FACTS 2019 1 Reason for Report / Summary 1.1 Schools within Aberdeenshire have been assessed for Suitability Core Facts to ensure that they are fit for purpose in delivering the education curriculum. This report provides an update of suitability grades for schools within Aberdeenshire. The Committee is recommended to give comments for consideration. 2 Recommendations The Committee is recommended to: 2.1 Acknowledge the content of the Suitability Core Facts 2019 submission to the Scottish Government, as detailed in Appendix 1 and Appendix 2. 2.2 Agree to receive an annual summary as part of the Learning Estates update paper. 3 Purpose and Decision-Making Route 3.1 All schools are assessed for condition and suitability. These grades are submitted annually and reported by the Scottish Government. Officers from Property, and Education and Children’s Services currently assess Core Facts for all school buildings according to the nationally-approved methodology. A new Core Facts approach was launched in November, 2017, which updated the process for assessing both the Condition and Suitability of school buildings. These changes were presented to the E&CS Committee in October, 2018. The Suitability Core Facts were submitted to the Scottish Government in April, 2019, and can be seen in Appendix 1. The submission for 2018 has been included for comparison. 3.2 Suitability is a measure of whether a school is fit for the purpose of delivering the education curriculum. That is whether the design and layout enhance its function and use, whether there is space and scope to accommodate all the pre-school, day-school and after-school demands and services and whether it is ‘inclusive’ and accessible.1 3.3 Reports were presented to each area committee during September and October, 2019. There was discussion around the gradings at each of the area committees. Formartine and Garioch Area Committees requested further information for each of the schools within their areas, which was provided. 1 The Suitability Core Fact Building better schools: Investing in Scotland’s future Item: 8 Page: 105 4 Discussion 4.1 To capture all the information necessary to arrive at a Suitability rating for the school as a whole, the primary school assessment covers five key areas: Learning and Teaching Spaces (General), Internal Social Spaces, Internal Facilities, External Social and External Facilities. 4.2 The secondary school assessment covers six key areas: Learning and Teaching (General), Learning and Teaching (Practical), Internal Social Spaces, Internal Facilities, External Social Spaces and External Facilities. Each of these areas has been allocated a major weighting. 4.3 Within each of above areas, there are various elements which have intermediate weightings (for example, ASN/SFL, classroom/teaching/nursery areas, practical/collaborative learning space, other external learning area, PE/games area – Internal and PE/games area – External are included within Learning and Teaching Spaces). 4.4 Many learning spaces are used for a variety of purposes and the same area could have been assessed differently depending on the usage. For example, a space might achieve an ‘A’ rating for a dining hall but a ‘C’ rating as a PE hall. 4.5 Where there are a number of spaces accessed within the same category, the majority grade is recorded. For example, a school may have seven classes, with four which achieve a ‘B’ grade and three which receive an ‘A’ grade. An overall grading of ‘B’ would be recorded. 4.6 To ensure that the ratings are consistent and comparable, they have been assessed against five key factors: • Functionality (shape, size, adaptability, lighting) • Accessibility (ease of access for all users) • Environmental Conditions (temperature, acoustics, ventilation, natural light, controllability) • Safety & Security (heat sources, windows, fire doors) • Fixed Furniture & Fittings (ICT, infrastructure, storage, display board, power points) Score Letter Definition Good: Performing well and operating >85% A efficiently Satisfactory: Performing well but with minor 60-84% B problems Poor: Showing major problems and/or not 40-59% C performing optimally Bad: Does not support delivery of service, <40% D seriously impedes delivery of activities 4.7 Aberdeenshire Approach The Quality Improvement Manager, Learning Estates, supported the Scottish Government with the review of methodology and has subsequently trained 4 Item: 8 Page: 106 officers across Aberdeenshire and the Northern Alliance. The Learning Estates Team moderated and assessed the Aberdeenshire learning estate. This showed some discrepancies in the collation and assessment of Suitability in previous years used for the basis of the annual submission to Scottish Government. The changes in approach, weightings and the moderation of the Suitability Core Facts have resulted in many grades being assessed higher than previous years. 4.8 Officers continue to moderate and update Core Facts to reflect current and recently completed works, in readiness for the next submission. 4.9 The table below shows the number of schools per grade for 2018 and 2019. The collated Core Facts show that 97.7% of Aberdeenshire schools are graded A or B. 2019 2018 Grade Change Submission Submission A 52 22 +30 B 99 81 +18 Primary Schools C 1 49 -48 D 0 0 - A 6 7 -1 B 8 6 +2 Secondary Schools C 3 4 -1 D 0 0 - A 1 1 - B 3 3 - Special Schools C 0 0 - D 0 0 - 4.10 There are a number of schools with improved grades. This is common across Scotland and is due to the consistent and moderated approach, with clear guidance wholly relating to Suitability and not Condition. The individual grades for each school for both the criteria and the key areas are shown in Appendix 2. 4.11 The Learning Estates Team use the Core Facts data to strategically and robustly prioritise enhancements to the learning estate. However, there needs to be recognition that certain aspects for some buildings will not be able to be improved upon due to the nature of the building or setting. Some school buildings do not have internal PE facilities and therefore receive a grading of D. The majority of C gradings are within the category of external facilities. Whilst car park is not a statutory element, they are assessed where present, as are pick up/drop off areas which not all schools have. It also includes bike rack facilities. However, due to associated risks of the roads and pathways to and around the building, not all schools wish to have this facility. 4.12 Other C gradings are associated with accessibility. The Accessibility Strategy is to provide a truly inclusive nature, giving help and support to enable pupils’ access to education, regardless of whether they have a diagnosed condition or meet specific disability criteria. 4 Item: 8 Page: 107 4.13 Aberdeenshire Council is committed to a staged approach to achieving the aspiration of a fully accessible learning estate. Firstly, ensuring all enhanced provision schools are fully accessible, then ensuring that schools outwith 20 miles from an enhanced provision school are also made accessible before making changes to other builds. Some schools within the estate are not fully accessible and, due to the design of the buildings, it would not be feasible to achieve this without extensive changes to the building at substantial cost. 4.14 Within the existing estate, all 17 academies are Community Resource Hubs, and one primary school in each of the 17 networks is designated as the location of enhanced provision. Of these, Gordon, Banff and Ellon Primaries are Community Resource Hubs and should include the following additional spaces: Multi-Sensory Room, Nurture Space, Life Skills Area, Accessible Toilet, Wheelchair Access and Disabled Parking. 4.15 Banff and Buchan Within Banff and Buchan, there are two enhanced provision schools: Banff Primary and Sandhaven School. Banff Primary School has all requirement. However, Sandhaven School requires a Multi-Sensory Room, Nurture Space, Life Skills area and Disabled Parking. Banff Academy and Fraserburgh Academy meet all the above requirements. 4.16 Buchan Within Buchan, there are two ASN Enhanced Schools - Dales Park School and Mintlaw Primary School, which both meet the above requirements. Mintlaw and Peterhead Academy also meet all the requirements. Due to the nature of the Pitfour School building, acoustics are compromised and would benefit from acoustic solutions. 4.17 Formartine Within Formartine, there are three ASN Enhanced Schools: Ellon Primary School, Meldrum Primary School and Turriff Primary School. All three schools meet the above requirements. Meldrum Academy, Ellon Community Campus and Turriff Academy also meet all the requirements. There are plans to replace some toilets within Pitmedden and a new passenger stairlift will be installed. This lift will give greater accessibility throughout the core part of the school. At Turriff Academy, improvement works, which include the replacement of curtain walling, will have a positive impact upon environmental conditions within the school. 4.18 Garioch Within Garioch, there are three ASN Enhanced Schools: Crombie, Kintore and Strathburn Schools. Both Kintore and Strathburn Schools meet the above requirements, while Crombie School requires a Nurture Space, Life Skills Area and Disabled Parking. Inverurie, Kemnay and Westhill Academies meet all the requirements. 4 Item: 8 Page: 108 An extension was added to Old Rayne School during the summer period, ready for occupation for the 2019/20 session. This has improved the accessibility to the School and will be graded a B for the 2020 submission. There are plans to build a stand alone nursery on the New Machar School site - this will incorporate better access and car parking to the rear of the site, reducing the congestion at the main entrance to the school. 4.19 Kincardine and Mearns Within Kincardine and Mearns, there are three ASN Enhanced Schools, Laurencekirk, Mill O’Forest and Portlethen Primary Schools.