Education Technical Paper, 2018
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Mansfield District Council Nottinghamshire County Council Education Technical Paper December 2018 Contents 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 2 2 Policy Background ............................................................................................ 3 3 Education Requirements .................................................................................. 9 4 Basic Needs Forecast .................................................................................... 12 5 New Housing Growth...................................................................................... 15 6 Forest Town Place Planning Area .................................................................. 16 7 Mansfield East Place Planning Area .............................................................. 20 8 Mansfield West Place Planning Area.............................................................. 27 9 Mansfield Woodhouse Place Planning Area ................................................... 32 10 Pleasley Place Planning Area ........................................................................ 36 11 Rainworth Place Planning Area ...................................................................... 40 12 Warsop Place Planning Area .......................................................................... 43 13 Secondary Education ..................................................................................... 47 14 Conclusions .................................................................................................... 55 1 Introduction 1.1 Across Nottinghamshire there is a two-tier system of local government. Nottinghamshire County Council is an upper-tier local authority and is responsible for education. As the Education Authority, the County Council is subject to a number of statutory duties and responsibilities including: • Promoting high standards of education; • Planning and commissioning school places in its local authority area; • Extending diversity and choice; • Co-ordinating admissions in the normal admissions round for all maintained and academy schools; • Resourcing maintenance, improvements and provision of the built school environment. 1.2 The lower tier of local government in Nottinghamshire is made up of seven borough and district councils, which includes Mansfield District Council. Through the preparation of Local Plans these councils set out policies relating to the development and use of land in their areas. This includes identifying the scale and location of new homes required, and the infrastructure required to support this growth. 1.3 Population growth and housing development have implications in relation to school places and the demand for places at individual schools. Consequently, it is important that there is an alignment between growth and the provision of supporting school infrastructure. Both the District Council and the County Council are under a ‘Duty to Cooperate’ in relation to the planning of sustainable development1. It places a legal duty on local planning authorities, county councils and public bodies to engage constructively, actively and on an on-going basis to maximise the effectiveness of Local Plan preparation in the context of strategic cross boundary matters. The duty to cooperate is not a duty to agree but local planning authorities should make every effort to secure the necessary cooperation on strategic cross boundary matters. 1.4 This Education Technical Paper identifies the scale of new education places required in Mansfield district, when, where and how these new places will be provided and how they will be funded. It is important to note, however, that education provision changes over time. As such the findings of this paper represent a snap shot as of December 2018 based on the information available. The situation will be reassessed when planning applications are submitted and when the local plan is reviewed. It should be noted that all possible solutions to the delivery of education provision which are referred to in this paper are subject to final confirmation. 1 Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. Section 33A. 2 2 Policy Background Education Policy 2.1 Nottinghamshire County Council as the Education Authority is the strategic commissioner for education provision and has statutory responsibilities in respect of children and young people. In summary, these responsibilities are: • To secure sufficient schools for providing (a) primary education and (b) secondary education and that those schools are available for their area. (Education Act 1996, Section 14); • To ensure sufficient Early Years and Childcare places for children (The Childcare Act 2006); • To meet special education need (The Children and Families Act 2014); • To secure diversity and increase parental choice when planning the provision of school places (Section 14 of the Education Act 1996 as amended by the Education and Inspections Act 2006); • To ensure fair access to educational opportunity and this duty applies to a wide range of education functions (Section 13A of the Education Act 1996 as amended by the Education and Inspections Act 2006); and • To provide youth work in three areas: positive activities, decision making by young people and 14-19 learning. (Section 507B of the Education Act 1996) 2.2 The raising of the participation age from 16 to 19 sets an expectation that all young people will participate in education, employment or training. 2.3 Over recent years, the government has changed the way in which education services are provided. The current system includes schools under Local Authority control and schools managed under Academy or Trust arrangements. However, national educational policy continues to move towards a more autonomous and diverse education system rather than the traditional structure of schools under the direct control of the education authority. The Government has reaffirmed its aspiration to encourage all schools to become academies and has made available support to convert schools and grow effective multi- academy trusts. This is reflected in a number of changes: • The Education and Adoption Act 2016, giving Government, through the Regional School Commissioner, new powers of intervention in all schools; • a national revenue funding formula which will see funding increasingly allocated direct to schools; • challenging budgets and the need to focus on value for money solutions; and 3 • a changing role for local authorities to that of a commissioner rather than a provider of school places. 2.4 The County Council undertakes school place planning and forecasting on an annual basis. This entails undertaking a rolling programme of pupil projection based on census data, taking into account birth rates, migration rates, GP registrations and school catchment information to try to match demand for school places with physical supply. 2.5 It is considered that a margin of surplus capacity across the local authority area is desirable to allow for fluctuations and a degree of parental choice. In general terms it is considered good practice to have the following: • 5 – 10% surplus at Primary level; and • 6 – 8% surplus at Secondary level. 2.6 The County Council submits data to central Government through the school capacity survey (SCAP), which bring together forecasts, school capacity and investment proposals. It is used by the Department of Education and the Education Funding Agency to identify areas where there may not be enough school places and future basic need funding levels. However, pupil forecasts in SCAP should only include expected pupil yields from housing developments that have full planning permission or where the local authority can demonstrate a degree of certainty that the development will go ahead within the timeframe of the forecasts2. Infrastructure Planning 2.7 National planning policy on the provision of infrastructure is set out in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). Of relevance to this Technical Paper the NPPF 2018, inter alia, requires that: • Plans are shaped by effective engagement with infrastructure providers and operators and statutory consultees (paragraph 16 c); • Strategic policies make sufficient provision for community facilities such as education (paragraph 20 c); • The preparation and review of policies should be underpinned by relevant and up to date evidence (paragraph 31); and • Plans should set out the contributions towards infrastructure expected from developers (paragraph 34). 2 School capacity (SCAP) survey 2016 Guide to forecasting pupil numbers in school place planning. 4 2.8 The Mansfield district Publication Draft Local Plan has been informed by an Infrastructure Delivery Plan (2018)3. This assesses the capacity of existing infrastructure, the need for additional infrastructure and sets out indicative costs. By necessity the IDP has been prepared at a high level. The purpose of this Technical Paper is to update information on education provision and provide more detail as to how and where future provision is to be made. 2.9 New development will contribute towards the provision of new infrastructure, including education, through the use of s106 planning obligations. Planning obligations assist in mitigating the impact of unacceptable development to make it acceptable in planning terms and are secured at the planning application stage. They can only be sought where they are: • Necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms;