School Places Strategy 2018-23
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School Places Strategy 2018-23 School Places Strategy 2018-23 Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. Place Planning Summary 5 3. Legal and Policy Context 7 4. Demographics and Key Issues 8 4.1 Demographics 8 4.2 Slough’s Schools 8 4.3 Free Schools and Academies 9 4.4 School Performance 10 4.5 Site availability 10 4.6 Travel Patterns and Grammar Schools 11 4.7 New Housing 11 5. School Place Planning Principles 13 6. Pupil Forecasting 14 6.1 Birth Data 14 6.2 In-year Growth 15 6.3 Demographic Changes in 2017-18 16 6.4 Data Sharing 16 7. Primary Place Planning 17 7.1 Projected Surplus of Places 17 7.2 Reception Classes 18 7.3 Contingency Planning - Options for Increasing Primary Places 18 7.4 Removing Surplus Capacity 19 8. Secondary Place Planning 20 8.1 The Secondary Expansion Programme 20 8.2 Peak Years 22 8.3 2021-22 onwards - options 22 8.4 Monitoring and Review 22 8.5 Post-16 Place Planning 23 9. Early Years 24 9.1 Early education and childcare sufficiency 24 10. Special Education Needs (SEN) and Alternative Provision (PRU) Places 25 10.1 SEN and PRU Forecasts 25 10.2 Out of Borough Placements 29 10.3 Post-16 placements 30 10.4 Residential Placements 30 10.5 Implications for SEND Place Planning 31 10.6 PRU Places - Alternative Provision 31 Appendix 1 Draft School Places Capital Programme 2017-23 32 Appendix 2 Summary of Slough’s current SEND provision: 33 Appendix 3 Summary of Slough’s Expansion Programmes* 34 www.slough.gov.uk 1 School Places Strategy 2018-23 Key FE Form of Entry, this describes a Reception SBC Slough Borough Council class of 30 pupils and the seven LA Local Authority or Slough Borough classrooms that are needed for the class Council to work their way through the school PRU Pupil Referral Unit also known as NOR Number on roll, this is a count of the Alternative Provision for those not willing number of pupils in an educational or able to attend mainstream school for a facility short period or long term ESFA Education and Skills Funding Agency SEND Special Education Needs and Disabilities, (formerly EFA): national body responsible refers to pupils with an EHCP, these pupils for school funding, delivering Free will attend a mainstream school possibly Schools and monitoring academies in a Resourced Unit or a Special School DfE Department for Education is the national EHCP Education and Health Care Plan: this has body responsible for education, children’s replaced statements of SEN, the transition services, higher and further education phase to EHCPs for pupils with policy statements ends in March 2018 SCAP School Capacity return, is an annual RSC Regional Schools Commissioner acts on return by SBC to the ESFA to explain behalf of the Secretary of State for projected shortfalls in school places. Education and is responsible for SEND and PRU places are not captured in intervening when academies or sponsors this return are underperforming, arranging sponsors for new academies and advising on new free schools. 2 www.slough.gov.uk School Places Strategy 2018-23 1. Introduction We are proud to introduce this School Place The strategy includes Slough’s latest pupil Strategy which supports the ambition in Slough’s projections, an analysis of projected shortfalls (or Five Year Plan that “Slough children will grow up to surpluses) in school provision and a summary of be happy, healthy and successful.” actions for delivering the new places that are required. This strategy describes Slough’s proposals for ensuring there are sufficient, suitable, high quality The strategy considers the future demand for early school places for every Slough child together with years, primary, secondary, SEN and PRU places. the principles that will be applied when expanding College Education and Higher Education provision or contracting provision. are not covered. The strategy is underpinned by our commitment to The strategy will be updated annually with the promoting educational excellence. The council latest data and forecasts. This may result in wants all pupils go to attend schools rated “Good” changes to existing proposals as the LA responds to or “Outstanding” by Ofsted and to receive a high the latest demographic changes in the town. quality education that will prepare them well for The Slough School Place Strategy is aligned to other the future. We are proud that to date all schools key council strategies and in particular supports expanded by Slough have received additional delivery of the following: funding to not only provide new classrooms, but also to improve facilities which support improved teaching and learning. www.slough.gov.uk 3 School Places Strategy 2018-23 Council’s Five Year Plan Outcome 1 - Slough children will grow up to be happy, healthy and successful. Children and Young People’s Plan Priority 7 - to ensure children and young people are engaged and helped to access opportunities that will enable them to reach their full potential. Slough School Improvement Slough’s School Improvement Strategy sets out the council’s Strategy approach to school effectiveness SEND Strategy 2016-20 Early Year’s Sufficiency Assessment Childcare Sufficiency Assessment 2017 sets out Slough’s future requirements. Slough Wellbeing Strategy Priority 1: Protecting vulnerable children 2016-20 Slough’s ambitions are: • Clearly we want all children to be safe and protected from abuse and neglect. • All children should have the opportunity to achieve the best in life. • More young people should be able to leave education with the qualifications and skills they need to fulfil their aspirations. We will work to ensure that Slough’s Children’s services are rated by Ofsted as ‘good’. Councillor Shabnum Sadiq Cate Duffy Cabinet Member for Director of Children and Education Children, Learning and Skills 4 www.slough.gov.uk School Places Strategy 2018-23 2.Place Planning Summary Slough Borough Council is responsible for ensuring c) Secondary Places there are sufficient school places for every resident A high number of secondary free schools have pupil that requires a school place. The council also opened in Slough in recent years including Grove has a statutory duty to promote educational Academy which opened for September 2017: in excellence for all Slough children and young people total they will provide 22 new forms of entry. In in state funded education, regardless of the status addition to this, projects are underway for adding of the provider institutions. However, the diverse 6.5 forms of entry at four existing Slough schools. nature of the school estate means that Slough is It is expected that together these projects will responsible for commissioning the majority of provide sufficient capacity until 2020-21, when school places rather than delivering them. Free forecasts indicate there will be a pressure on places Schools, for instance, are approved and built for for 3 or 4 years before demand reduces again Slough by a government agency (the ESFA) based creating surplus capacity. As with the primary on a school place summary that is submitted to sector the number of new arrivals is closely them annually. monitored. a) Early Years d) Post-16 There continues to be a focus on place In most cases Post-16 provision is increasing in line development for two, three and four year olds in with secondary capacity. The higher birth rates will Slough. The council conducts an annual Childcare start to significantly affect post-16 demand from Sufficiency Assessment to identify and prioritise 2019 and continue for the next decade. areas where further place development is required. Capacity is being increased in the private, voluntary and independent sector. b) Primary Places The opening of a new all-through free school in 2017 means that Slough has sufficient Reception classes to meet projected demand and provide some surplus capacity. A certain level of surplus is welcomed in all year groups to accommodate new arrivals to Slough. The number of new arrivals is closely monitored as unexpected increases or decreases can affect the proposals outlined in this report. While there is surplus capacity projected in lower year groups, there is an existing pressure in some higher year groups which is forecast to continue as new arrivals move into the town. To ensure sufficient capacity was available for 2017-18 four bulge classes opened in year groups 1 to 5. Further junior bulge classes may be required over the next few years although a recent slow down in new arrivals has reduced the likelihood that these will be required. Some schools are considering temporary reductions to their admission numbers as a result of the slow down. www.slough.gov.uk 5 School Places Strategy 2018-23 e) SEND Places Other Funding Sources The majority of pupils with Education Health and Care Plans (EHCP) will be educated in mainstream • Free Schools - Where promoters bid directly to schools. However a proportion will require the ESFA for Free Schools they are funded specialist provision. Those requiring full time externally if successful. The risk with free schools specialist provision attend a Special School while is that the provider, timing, location and those pupils whose needs can be met through a admission criteria of the school would be out of combination of mainstream and specialist facilities the control of the LA and may not meet local will be allocated a place in a Resource Unit. Slough needs or Slough’s expectations of quality. has a programme underway to expand both types Alternatively, if an LA is willing to fund the capital of provision. A number of new resource units have cost of the school and has a site available, they just opened or will soon open and a number of can advertise for Free School promoters and hold existing SEND Resource Units are being expanded.