Pupil Place Planning and School Organisation 2020-2021

Rutland County Council’s Pupil Place Planning and School Organisation Strategy, and its annual updates, will be implemented alongside other local plans and strategies, including the Education Framework and the SEND and inclusion Strategy. Together, these support the drive to raise standards, aspiration and achievement, providing ’s children and young people with the best life chances possible.

Whilst this strategy’s key focus is on pupil place sufficiency in Rutland state-funded schools, to ensure this is viewed in the wider context of sufficiency and quality of education, the wider statutory duties for sufficiency of Early Education and Childcare and Post-16 provision are included.

Early Education and Childcare The local authority has a duty though Sections 6, 7 and 9 of the Childcare Act 2006 to secure sufficient childcare places, so far as is reasonably practicable, for working parents or parents who are studying or training for employment, for children aged 0-14 (or up to 18 for disabled children).

Sufficiency is evaluated and reported through the annual Childcare Sufficiency Assessment (CSA)

School Places from Reception to Year 11 The Education Act 1996 legislated that local authorities should have regard to sections 13, 13A and 14 which require local authorities to ensure that sufficient primary and secondary education is available to meet the needs of their population.

Sufficiency is evaluated and reported through the annual School Capacity (SCAP) Assessment completed in the summer.

Post-16 provision The local authority has a duty (Education Act 1996) to secure sufficient suitable education and training provision for all 16-19 year olds and to encourage, enable and assist young people to participate.

There is no formal mechanism for assessing sufficiency; the annual Autumn Activity Survey provides information on destination of students on completion of Year 11.

Early Education and Childcare Sufficiency

Context Rutland County Council completes an annual Childcare Sufficiency Assessment (CSA) to assess sufficiency of pre-school childcare for Rutland families. Having sufficient childcare means that families are “as far as is reasonably practicable” able to find childcare to meet their child’s early education and welfare needs and enables parents to make a real choice about work or training that may lead to paid employment.

This assessment is made through a review of information gathered, including the reported need for childcare and the amount of childcare available, through feedback from early years’ providers and parent/ carers. Assessment of childcare sufficiency is used to determine any actions required by the Local Authority to support and develop the local childcare economy in partnership with current and potential early education and childcare providers.

Early education and childcare in Rutland is provided by a large number of different providers and includes (at the time of the most recent CSA) 17 Private, Voluntary and Independent (PVI) nursery settings, 3 nurseries within state-funded school governance, 1 independent school nursery, 1 special school nursery and 27 childminders. Early education and childcare provision is registered and regulated by Ofsted. Provision is available across Rutland (Appendix A – A.1).

Capacity During May 2019, a thorough assessment of the occupancy of childcare places in the early years’ sector was undertaken. Early Years Settings provide a total of 982 places with 70.3% occupancy across Rutland therefore leaving 29.7% sufficiency. This is an increase from 2018 where the surplus capacity was 20.2%. Further detail of this is reported in Rutland County Council’s annual Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report https://www.rutland.gov.uk/my-services/schools-education-and-learning/early- education-and-childcare/childcare-sufficiency-assessment-report/

Conclusions and recommended actions

From the 2018-19 Childcare Sufficiency Assessment it is evident that there is sufficiency of places across the Early Education and Childcare Sector. The Council will continue to work with the Early Education sector to support the viability of providers and offering information and support to enable providers to manage their market, whilst recognising they are all private or independent providers who will need to develop their own sustainable business models.

Whilst there is sufficiency, market forces will determine when and where growth is required, and over- availability of places may require some providers to adjust their offer to better meet parental requirements. It is therefore important to ensure that the outcomes of the annual assessment are utilised by the LA and the Early Education and Childcare sector to maintain the right balance.

School Pupil Place Planning and Organisation

Context Effective place planning is a fundamental element of the local authority’s role in making sure school places are of good quality with enough capacity to allow parental choice and diversity. The local authority must therefore plan, organise and commission places for all state-funded schools in Rutland so that high standards are maintained, diverse school communities created and fluctuating pupil numbers are managed efficiently. When ensuring sufficient education places for all, the authority works with its partners, educational providers, service users, Diocese and the to engage all interested parties in the solution. In Rutland, there are currently 17 primary schools and 3 secondary schools (Appendix A – A.2). Since the introduction of the Academies Act 2010 and the Education Act 2011, Rutland has seen a high percentage of schools becoming Academies, either through conversion or sponsorship, and currently all but two primary schools are academies. In addition there is one maintained nursery special school and one free school sixth form college which are not included in school place planning activity. The Council’s duty to make sure there are enough school places applies across all types of school, therefore the role of the council is to work in partnership with all self-governed academies, multi academy trusts and free schools as well as schools maintained by the authority. To support the sufficiency statutory duty, the council is allocated “Basic Need” funding. This is allocated to the council for all types of school, including academies. The amount provided is generated by the completion of the School Capacity (SCAP) Collection which each council is required to complete in July each year. The SCAP provides forecasts of the number of pupils and the capacity of schools for the next five years at primary, and seven years for secondary. The level of funding is proportional to the deficit in places. Any new housing is considered to generate additional pressure on the demand for school places and the local authority is also expected to negotiate financial contributions from developers where new housing will mean that additional school places are required. When developers present proposals for new developments, there is a duty upon them to contribute towards improving the supporting infrastructure to meet this additional demand. This can include a variety of facilities, such as schools, GP surgeries, highways, and parks. This contribution is proportional to the size of the scheme. A legal agreement (section 106) is included with planning permission which sets out how the developer will provide these services. This is usually in the form of a ‘developer contribution’; a financial obligation that is paid in stages as the development evolves. Alternatively, a developer could provide land or facilities if this is more suitable. For example, a developer could provide a nursery as part of the development, rather than paying to expand existing nursery provision. The government introduced the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) in 2010. This was designed to complement section 106 agreements as a means of mitigating the impact of developments. Rutland is an authority that has adopted CIL and no longer uses section 106; an Infrastructure Delivery Plan (IDP) is produced to identify the Infrastructure the Council requires in the medium to long term; CIL is used CIL to deliver requirements. Rutland County Council has invested around £1.025m over the last five years to provide an additional 90 primary and 150 secondary school places. School Capacity The Council has to ensure there are sufficient school places in the right locations and at the right time to meet demand, taking account of parental preference. This, coupled with the local and national policy of successful schools expanding, means that consideration must be given to the OFSTED rating of the school, its current performance, and its popularity with parents. For parental choice to work effectively, there may be some surplus capacity in the system as a whole. The Audit Commission recommends an operating surplus of 5% to allow for in-year admissions.

For maintained schools, capacity is defined by the net capacity assessment which is based on the net area of all buildings that are available to that school and should include all extra places that have been added to the school (even though they may not yet be in use), any classrooms that have been temporarily taken out of use or non-teaching space that has been re-designated as a classroom. For academies, planned capacity is set out in the funding agreement. If additional places are required above the current capacity, the local authority is able to deliver this by:  Permanent Expansion of existing schools by increasing floor areas and extending school building’s to provide for a permanent increase in the number of pupils to be admitted. Expansions can be subject to legal processes, planning and building permissions. This often is seen as more cost-effective than opening a new school which entail higher build and land costs.  Temporary Expansions and Bulge Classes which are delivered for a fixed number of years, usually while a cohort moves through the school system. These may be within existing accommodation, mobile classrooms or permanent alterations to the school. They can require planning permission and adaptations to internal buildings, however statutory school organisation proposals are not required. Temporary expansions can be provided to meet an unexpected need or be planned to accommodate foreseen need.  Increases in Planned Admission Number through which the admitting authority for a school is able to provide additional places through an increase in admission numbers. This can be through increasing the PAN for future years (within existing accommodation) or over-offering of places.  Establishing a New School through either:

o the DfE’s new free-school waves where providers express an interest to open provision within a local authority area or: o the local authority seeking proposals to establish an academy/free school under the Education Act 2011 free-school presumption. Under the presumption route, the local authority is responsible for providing the site for the new school. For changes involving a significant change to an existing academy the council will need to work with the academy concerned but, if a proposal is agreed, the council is not able to propose this itself. Instead the academy must have regard for the Department for Education (DfE) guidance ‘Making significant changes to an open academy and closure by mutual agreement’ (November 2019) https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file /847451/Significant_change_and_academy_closure_151119.pdf .

School places in Rutland Predicting school demand is a complex task because where children go to school involves a range of different and often conflicting factors and, as a result, planning for school places is based on probabilities, not certainties. This means that while projections may be made from robust calculations, they do not offer any guarantees. As well as high inward mobility into Rutland schools as a consequence of parental choice, there are also a large number of new houses under development and planned within the county and in adjoining authorities over the coming years. There is no direct link between the number of children living in a particular area and the number of school places located there. This is because, when it comes to applying for a school place, parents/carers are under no obligation to apply for their nearest state funded school, and could instead express a preference for a school outside of their town, or even out of county, or choose independent schooling for their child. Councils are the admissions authorities for community and voluntary controlled schools and are responsible for setting their admissions policies and catchment areas. Faith schools (voluntary aided schools), academies and free schools are responsible for setting their own admissions policies and they are ‘own admission authorities’. The local authority is responsible for co-ordinating all school admissions in Rutland during the normal rounds at the start of primary and secondary school but the statutory duty on councils to coordinate in-year admissions outside the normal rounds has been removed and, in Rutland, this process is now undertaken by all but one of the schools. Primary School Places: There are 3436 Rutland primary school places in total from Reception to Year 6 across the 17 schools. Rutland 2019 SCAP return identifies that the general trend in Rutland primary schools is one of slowly increasing demand, without threatening overall capacity within the timescale of the SCAP (i.e. academic year 2023-24).

However, this does not take account of any housing developments which do not yet have planning permission such as the site of St George’s Barracks, a former MOD base, with potentially around 2,000 houses or the Stamford North expansion which crosses the Rutland border offering a further 600 hundred houses. These will be included in 2020 SCAP calculations if permissions have been granted at the time of completion and factored into future primary development expansion/ relocation options. Primary School places within Rutland are considered in three geographical clusters: , Casterton and Uppingham to enable pressures and surplus places to be monitored and managed more flexibly. OAKHAM CLUSTER: This cluster is at 94% capacity, however forecast does not suggest it will go over capacity in the foreseeable future. The potential large housing expansions at St Georges and Stamford North do not directly impact on schools in the Oakham cluster, but this does not take account of parental choice and other potential local housing developments. CASTERTON CLUSTER: This cluster is at 75% capacity, however Cottesmore Primary School, which is situated within the military base at Kendrew Barracks and therefore less readily accessible to non-military families, is included in this calculation. If Cottesmore is removed from the Cluster capacity calculations, this will have implications on the available places in this cluster, although the forecast indicates that sufficiency will remain. UPPINGHAM CLUSTER: This cluster is currently at 72% capacity. The potential development at St Georges could impact on the Uppingham cluster, however the relocation and expansion of an existing primary school from within the cluster is planned to alleviate pressure from this site. Secondary School Places There are currently 2865 places across the three Rutland secondary schools (Year 6 to Year 11). The SCAP forecasts that overall capacity will be marginally exceeded in 2022 and 2023, before returning to a level within capacity.

However, this forecast does not take into account the impact of inward mobility from surrounding authorities. For admissions in September 2020, 68.5% of the 210 offers for Year 7 places made by , and 60% of the 180 places offered by Uppingham Community College, were to children from outside Rutland, which is a similar pattern to 2018 and 2019. There are no indications at this time that there would be any significant change going forward without changes to each school’s own admission arrangements.

Additionally, this forecast does not take into account of pressures now being experienced within individual year groups. Historically, there has been surplus capacity within the secondary sector which is still observed when viewing the sector as a whole, however this masks pressures now being seen in Years 7 and 8 in the academic year 2019-20. This means that children moving into Rutland at secondary school age in those year groups cannot be guaranteed a place at a Rutland secondary school and parents are having to appeal for a school place. The Local Authority Fair Access Protocol has being revised to strengthen actions for children without a school place.

Conclusions and recommended actions Councils have a responsibility to make sure that there are enough school places available for children and young people in their areas. However, fulfilling this duty is currently a challenge and the local authority must endeavour to manage expectations. This document does not seek to definitively set out all the actions the authority intends to take in the future, but rather is intended to provide an overview of issues that may arise in Rutland and potential solutions. In a system full of contextual changes, many of which are not controlled by the local authority (e.g. number of homes sold, number of children living in each home, number of places offered by other admissions authorities, parental preference, etc.) it is difficult to plan the right number of places for the medium to long term future. Whilst a shortfall in provision would result in the council not being able to meet its statutory duty and last minute plans being put in place to address this, a surplus in provision brings other risks and challenges. Providing extra places in schools can result in children moving out of their existing schools into these places, (sometimes for no clear reason), precluding those yet to move into the area from taking these places, and destabilising the existing schools. Such mobility is not supportive to improving outcomes for children. Further to this, the capital resources provided to the council to ensure sufficiency of school places are limited. It would therefore be inappropriate to invest them in creating ‘empty places’ in the system. Getting the balance right is therefore key. The conclusions and recommendations from the review of pupil places therefore are as follows: Primary sector:

The need for primary school places largely depends on the local child population and, to a lesser extent than seen at secondary phase, on pupils coming into the county from adjacent authorities. Sufficient places currently exist across the primary sector, but annual monitoring of capacity, aligned to housing development and population growth, will determine where future expansion may be required and planned for.

Secondary sector:

Currently there is pressure on places in Year 7 and 8 places in Rutland secondary schools which is forecast to move through the schools over time; there are no indications that these pressures will not continue whilst all three schools remain successful, popular and attract applications for places from neighbouring authorities. All Rutland resident pupils who applied for a school place in Rutland for Y7 September 2020 have received an offer, however there is currently limited sufficiency for further admission requests into that year group across the county.

Councils have no powers to direct academies to expand and, as all secondary schools are now academies, a key challenge is working in partnership with them to deliver the new secondary places needed.

In spring 2020, stage one of a commissioned feasibility study was undertaken to identify the preferred site for expansion of a Rutland secondary school to provide an extra 30 places for students entering in to Year 7 from September 2021. The feasibility study included analysis of the three secondary school sites at Casterton College, and Uppingham Community College in terms of location and condition of the facility and the reality of whether the project would require extension to current buildings or re-building of some or all of the site.

Stage two of the feasibility study will offer a more detailed profile of the preferred option identified through Stage one of the study, with the intention for the additional capacity created to be reflected in the admission round commencing autumn 2020.

Special educational needs provision

Every parent wants the best education for their child. For most parents this involves having a choice of schools and, as they grow older, helping young people make choices of which subjects to study, and which career to follow. For parents whose child has a special education need or disability (SEND) the choices may be more limited, but are no less important. All children and young people need to be equipped to be resilient in a diverse and challenging world. Whatever their ability, they need to be able to be fully included in society, to assess and take appropriate risks, and to live as independently as possible. Rutland County Council is responsible for commissioning school places in both mainstream and special schools. Over the period covered by this Pupil Place Strategy, the Council will be seeking to support more children with SEND in mainstream schools, and fewer in specialist settings. To do this, the Council will:  review the funding mechanisms to ensure High Needs Funding is being used effectively to support inclusive practice in mainstream schools and reduce high cost placements  work with Rutland Teaching School Alliance and other providers, headteachers and Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCos) to ensure staff are appropriately trained and have the confidence, skills and knowledge to meet a wide range of needs  invest, where appropriate, in adapting mainstream school buildings to provide additional facilities to support inclusive practice

Post-16 Education Offer and Sufficiency

Context In fulfilling their post-16 statutory duties to ‘secure sufficient suitable education and training provision to meet the reasonable needs of young people and to cooperate with other local authorities’, local authorities should champion the education and training needs of young people in their area by: • Influencing and shaping the provision on offer and helping to develop and improve the education and training market; • Supporting the improvement of the quality of the education and training of young people aged 16-19; • Supporting employer needs, economic growth and community development working with Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) as appropriate; • Supporting the development of provider and stakeholder networks that help to deliver the RPA targets.

Post-16 Provision In and Around Rutland There are various avenues for Rutland young people to access Post 16 Provision within suitable travelling distance which offer academic A-level courses, vocational courses including BTECs and NVQs, apprenticeships and supported internships (Appendix A – A.3).

The Local Authority maintains a clear understanding of the destinations of all Rutland young people attending state funded Rutland Schools through the Annual Activity Report which is completed to establish the post-16 destinations of young people leaving the three secondary schools after completing their Year 11 studies.

From data it appears that young people who have attended Rutland schools go on to attend their post-16 education offer out of county though the number of out of county residents attending Rutland schools should also be considered because these students may be travelling to post-16 provision nearer their own homes.

Conclusions and recommended actions As in previous years, the small number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) indicates that the wide range of post-16 provision available within Rutland and in the surrounding region offers the levels of choice required and that there is currently sufficient suitable provision within the locality.

In order to ensure the Local Authority fulfils its duty to secure sufficient suitable education and training provision to meet the reasonable needs of young people, there will continue to be careful scrutiny of the Annual Activity Report upon completion each year, as well as careful monitoring of NEET figures, to ensure that young people are not missing out on opportunities for education or training because of insufficient places available.

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PLEASE NOTE: Information was correct at date of completion (June 2020). The information provided in this document may change, not least as a result of policy or funding announcements by the Department for Education.

APPENDIX A: Location of Rutland Education Settings:

A.1: Rutland Early Education and Childcare Settings:

A.2: Rutland Primary and Secondary Schools:

A.3: Post-16 and Further Education:

A - Stamford - New College F- Leicester - Leicester College B - Oakham - Harrington 6th Form College G - Leicester- Sixth Form Gateway College C - Melton Mowbray - Melton Vale 6th Form College H - Peterborough Regional College D - Corby - Corby Business Academy I - Peterborough City College E - Corby – Corby Technical School