FUTURE SECONDARY SCHOOL PLACES: PROPOSALS ITEM 46 BY THE FUNDING AGENCY FOR SCHOOLS

Contact Officer: Chris Shires Telephone: 0895 250529

SUMMARY

Following public consultation on the proposals published by the Funding Agency for Schools (FAS) in late October for the enlargement of six GM secondary schools in Hillingdon, this report : a) outlines the FAS proposals and the Committee’s public consultation process; b) gives further information on the need for more secondary school places in the borough over the next seven years; c) identifies key issues arising from the public consultation; and d) outlines various options for the Committee to consider in making a response to the FAS proposals.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. That the Committee notes the outcomes of the public consultation upon the FAS proposals and the further information in this report about the need for more secondary school places in Hillingdon over the next seven years.

2. That the Committee decides upon its response to the Funding Agency for Schools in the light of the issues and options outlined in this report.

INFORMATION

The FAS Proposals and the LEA’s Consultation Process

46.1 The Funding Agency for Schools (FAS), which since April this year has had sole responsibility for planning secondary school places in Hillingdon, published a consultative document, “New School Places in Hillingdon”, in late October. This was reported to the Committee on 8 November, and the full FAS document was included as an appendix. It is therefore not reproduced here, but if any member needs another copy the Director of Education’s office will be pleased to provide one.

PART I - MEMBERS AND PUBLIC (INCLUDING THE PRESS)

Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 1 46.2 In brief, the FAS document identifies a need for around 210 more Year 7 places across the borough in September 1999, and proposes the enlargement of six GM secondary schools in various parts of the borough to meet this need. Most of these extra places should be provided before 1999 in order to meet the urgent need to offer parents more choice for their children, the document says.

46.3 The six FAS proposals are as follows :

Minimum Proposed New 11-16 Total New New Total Admission New AN Places 11-16 places Forms of Number (AN)

Haydon School 193 240 235 1200 8 Mellow Lane School 188 240 260 1200 8 Queensmead School 180 240 300 1200 8 Swakeleys School 145 180 175 900 6 Vyners School 150 180 150 900 6 The Douay Martyrs (a) 194 210 80 1050 7 or (b) 194 240 230 1200 8

46.4 The FAS have used two principal criteria to decide which schools should be enlarged, they explain in para.22 of their document, plus a third criterion affecting Swakeleys School only :

(a) Schools in the areas where the increased demand is likely to be greatest; (b) Schools of proven popularity and quality; (c) Redressing the balance between boys’ and girls’ single-sex places in the borough, by enlarging Swakeleys.

46.5 LEA Consultation Process : On 8 November the Committee approved a series of four public meetings in the areas of the borough principally affected by the FAS proposals, and invited representatives of the FAS and of the GM schools concerned to take part in these meetings. The meetings were held between 17 and 30 November,

- at Coteford School, for the Eastcote area - at Deanesfield School, for the South Ruislip area - at Belmore School, for the Hayes area - at Breakspear School, for the Ickenham and North Uxbridge area.

46.6 These meetings were attended by between 30 and (at Breakspear School) around 100 people, and were chaired by the Chair of the Education Committee. The regional officer of the FAS spoke about the FAS proposals and answered questions about them from the audience, and the chairs of governors and/or the headteachers of most of the six schools proposed for enlargement attended the relevant area meetings.

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Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 2 46.7 The views expressed at these meetings were noted down by LEA officers, and the key issues raised are outlined and commented upon in section 3 of this report. A small number of letters have also been received, including one from the chair of governors of Evelyns School and one from the clerk to the governing body of John Penrose School. These last two letters, from LEA secondary schools, are reproduced as Appendices D and E. The views they express are also commented upon in section 3.

Need for More Secondary School Places

46.8 The FAS proposals are based upon the predicted shortage of 210 - 220 places in Year 7 (not across the whole 11-16 age-range) in September 1999. As stated in the FAS consultative document (paragraph 15), the Year 7 pupil numbers used for this prediction are the LEA’s projections, calculated in association with the London Research Centre (LRC).

Appendix A to this report gives the year-on-year LRC figures, on lines B.1 and B.2, showing a shortfall of 219 places in Year 7 in September 1999 (8 more than in the FAS figures because the actual total capacity of all the secondary schools is 8 less, at 2671, than the FAS’ figure).

46.9 The shortfall in Year 7 places only begins to be of significant size in September 1998 (at 135), but in practice the position will become very tight for September 1996, when only a marginal “surplus” of 10 places is predicted. This is recognised in the FAS document, which states (in para. 17) :

“In practice, as this year’s admissions round has shown, the need is urgent if parents are to have any real choice for their children. We are therefore planning for most of the new Year 7 places to come on-stream before September 1988. That will also give scope to cater for additional pupils should the projections prove to be too low, as we expect”.

46.10 LEA officers agree that, on the most recent trends, the LRC methodology tends to underestimate future pupil numbers in the longer term. A modified method has therefore been used to take account of the current tendency for the older age-groups in primary schools to stay at the same overall size as they move into secondary schools, instead of gradually reducing in size as they grow older (as in past years). This method is referred to in the appendices as “100% progression of age-groups”.

46.11 This method is the one used to calculate all the school by school figures and the totals on lines A1 and A2 in Appendices A and B. As Appendix A shows (on line A2), this method predicts a significant shortfall (54) in Year 7 places in September 1996, compared to the marginal surplus of 10 places predicted by the LRC method. In September 1999 the shortfall grows to 411 using the 100% age-group progression method, compared with the shortfall of 219 produced by the LRC method.

PART I - MEMBERS AND PUBLIC (INCLUDING THE PRESS)

Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 3 46.12 The “100% progression” method thus supports the FAS view that the LRC projections may be too low, and strengthens the case for some new places to be provided by September 1996. It also supports the FAS view that more than 210 new Year 7 places will be needed in September 1999, but goes beyond the FAS proposals for up to 270 new places and suggests that around 410 new Year 7 places could be needed for 1999 across the borough as a whole.

46.13 Children from New Housing Developments : The LRC projections of future secondary pupil numbers do not include any allowance for the additional children to come from new housing which is not yet built. The “100% age-group progression” method does however make some allowance for these additional children, and this is one of the reasons why the figures produced by this method are higher than those resulting from the LRC approach.

46.14 The Peabody Trust housing development in Yeading is however so large (340 housing units) that the numbers of children anticipated from it need to be added to the 100% age- group progression figures. This has accordingly been done in Appendices A, B and C : in each case the figures in brackets include the anticipated secondary-age pupil numbers from the Peabody Trust development, i.e. the “pupil yield”. The bracketed figures incorporate the lower figure next to them in the same column.

46.15 Beyond 1999, the number of children from the Peabody Trust housing reaching secondary school age is expected to rise considerably each year, because the anticipated size of their age-groups is weighted heavily towards children who are currently under the age of six.

46.16 Appendix C shows the future need for places in the Barnhill area, using the definition of “local area” required by the Department For Education for this purpose - all schools within a 3-mile radius of the Barnhill site and within the borough. It compares places in all statutory year groups (11-16) with projected pupil numbers in all these year groups, as required by the DFE for a basic need case.

46.17 The sharp increase in pupils anticipated from new housing after 1999, combined with the overall upward trend in numbers, could lead to a case for a new school in the Barnhill area in the early 2000s. Much depends, however, on how many extra places are created at other schools within three miles of Barnhill in the meantime. This issue is considered further in section 3 below, especially in paras. 3.6 - 3.10 and in part (B) of section 3.

46.18 The DFE’s required method of measuring future basic need for school places, by taking into account all places across Years 7-11 instead of just those in Year 7, is applied to the borough as a whole in Appendix B. This has been done in order to show the prospects for making a case to the DFE for a new school at some time in the next few years; under present regulations the “Year 7 Mismatch Method” would not be accepted by the DFE for this purpose.

46.19 Appendix B shows that, using the 100% age-group progression method (in lines A1 and A2), there would not be an overall shortage of places until September 1999, when the

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Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 4 shortage could be between 485 and 550 places. By the year 2001 this could grow to an overall shortage of between 1465 and 1657 places. All these figures assume no enlargement of any schools in the meantime. The implications of these projections are considered in paragraphs 3.12 - 3.15 below.

Issues arising from the Committee’s Public Consultation

(A) Enlargement of Existing Schools or Establishment of a New School

46.20 The FAS consultation paper presents these as the two broad options to consider in order to meet the predicted level of future demand. The FAS view of the issue is stated in paragraph 21 of their paper :

“The overall level of need that we have identified could in itself justify our establishing a fairly large new secondary school. However, that need is over a reasonably widespread area, and the existing schools, which have a record of quality and popularity, are well placed to meet that need. A new school would necessarily not be in the right place for many of the new pupils. Our conclusion is that expansion is a more sensible planning solution.”

46.21 The question of creating a new school instead of enlarging existing ones, or instead of enlarging some of them, was raised at the public meetings held by the Committee in Eastcote, South Ruislip and Hayes. For parents in the north of the borough the question was whether a new school could be established in the central part of Ruislip, while parents at the Hayes meeting pressed for the reopening of Barnhill School as soon as possible.

46.22 New School in Ruislip : This was put forward principally by some parents at the South Ruislip meeting, as an alternative to enlarging Queensmead School since the governors, parents and staff of Queensmead had firmly decided that they did not agree with the proposal to enlarge their school. Parents in Ruislip Gardens and other parts of Ruislip who would be very unlikely to obtain places at Queensmead without any enlargement of the school said that they needed a secondary school closer to their homes than the other existing schools, in order to avoid long journeys for their children.

46.23 Parents living relatively near to Queensmead School , e.g in Ruislip Gardens, expressed the view strongly that Queensmead School should be expanded, to enable it to admit all children from the local area in South Ruislip and Ruislip Gardens. It was pointed out in response by the Chair of Governors that any enlargement would lead to more children gaining places from the nearby parts of Ealing and Harrow Boroughs; extra places could not all be allocated to Hillingdon children, because of the Greenwich judgment.

46.24 Director of Education’s Comments : The idea of a new school in Ruislip, especially if located in West Ruislip where there is no local non-church school, is understandably attractive to parents in that area, especially if Queensmead and/or Haydon

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Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 5 School are not enlarged. There would however be major difficulties in pursuing this idea further :

(a) Even if neither Queensmead nor Haydon School were enlarged, there would probably be an insufficient shortage of places by 1999 on current projections to justify a new school in the north of the borough. If at least one of these schools is enlarged, there will be no case for a new school in the north for the foreseeable future under the rules set by the Secretary of State for Education.

(b) No obvious site exists in Ruislip for a new secondary school, which would require around 16 acres of land, and negotiations to acquire a site for this purpose could be lengthy.

(c) Extra places are needed in Ruislip by September 1996, much sooner than could be achieved if the only decision were to build a new school.

46.25 New School in Hayes, on the Barnhill Site : This option was put forward very strongly by the parents who attended the public meeting for the Hayes area, which was held at Belmore Primary School in Yeading. They emphasised that in their view Barnhill School should never have been closed, and now that the Funding Agency was proposing to create more places at Mellow Lane School, fairly close to Barnhill, the opportunity should be taken to re-open Barnhill School instead. This would meet the needs of parents in Yeading, including those who would be moving into all the new housing at Willow Tree Lane over the next few years, more locally and more effectively than by enlarging Mellow Lane School. It may be that Mellow Lane could be enlarged too, to meet the demand for places in its immediate area, some people said.

46.26 It was explained by the FAS official present that the possibility of re-opening Barnhill School had been taken into account by the Funding Agency and had not been ruled out for the future. The FAS plan stated that in the longer term further additional secondary school places may be needed, probably in the south of the borough. There was however a risk that re-opening Barnhill too soon would create too many extra places, and this could harm other schools.

46.27 The view was then expressed at the Hayes/Yeading meeting that no decision should be taken now about enlarging other schools which would pre-empt the re-opening of Barnhill in the future. A long-term plan for secondary schools in the area needed to be drawn up now, and should include a new Barnhill Community School.

46.28 Director of Education’s Comments : The FAS official’s view about the longer-term situation, as reported in paragraph 3.7 above, is supported by the Director of Education. The pupil number projections set out in Appendix C suggest that up to 1999 there would only be a case for a new school at Barnhill (i.e. a case which the Secretary of State might approve) if none of the other schools within three miles are enlarged in the meantime. These include Mellow Lane, Queensmead, Swakeleys and The Douay Martyrs Schools, all currently proposed for enlargement by the FAS.

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Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 6 46.29 Beyond 1999, the need for a new school at Barnhill School becomes progressively easier to establish, but on current projections there may still not be a shortage of places by 2001 if all four of the above schools are enlarged. If only one or two of the four are enlarged, however, it might be possible to make a case for a new school to open by 2001.

(B) Two New Schools - One in the North and One in the South ?

46.30 It needs to be stressed that all the points made in section (A) above about the question of a new school in Ruislip or in Hayes deal with these two issues separately. In planning terms they cannot be kept separate, however, since the areas covered by any such schools would overlap considerably.

This is because the need for a new school has to be shown by taking into account all schools within a three mile radius of the site in question, and three miles north of Barnhill is well into South Ruislip, and vice versa.

46.31 Bearing this in mind, together with the borough-wide projections of future pupil numbers in Appendices A and B, it is clear that there will not be a case for two new secondary schools in the borough for the foreseeable future, i.e. until after the year 2001. Two new schools of six forms of entry each (180 places per year) would create 1800 extra places for 11-16 year olds, and this compares with a predicted overall shortage (in Appendix B) of 550 places in 1999 (using the “worst case” projections) and of 1657 places in 2001. These figures assume no enlargements at any schools in the meantime.

46.32 Since two new schools could not be justified, it follows that a new school in one part of the borough would effectively rule out the possibility of a new school in another part of the borough for the next ten years at least. The need for extra places in both the south and the north of the borough means, however, that if a new school were opened somewhere in the borough there would still be a need for one or two schools to be enlarged in other parts of the borough.

46.33 Taking all these considerations into account, the Director of Education agrees with the FAS view (as quoted in para. 3.1 above) that expanding some existing schools is a more sensible planning solution than opening a new school at the present time, in order to provide the extra places which are needed in various parts of the borough within the next 2-3 years. There is however a case for a longer term, second stage plan to open a new school on the Barnhill site in the early part of the next decade.

46.34 Just how soon this option could be realistically proposed to the Secretary of State will depend crucially upon three factors :

(a) How many extra places are created at existing schools within three miles of Barnhill as a result of the FAS’ current proposals; the greater the number of extra places, the farther into the future the likely re-opening of Barnhill is deferred; and

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Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 7 (b) How many children ultimately come to live in the Peabody Trust housing when completed, and in other new housing currently planned in the area, and how soon a sizeable number of these children reach secondary school age over the next 6-10 years.

(c) Whether the existing tight DFE rules about proving a basic need for a new school (or an enlargement) remain in force in future years, or whether these are modified and relaxed at some stage to take account of more localised need than over a three-mile radius, and to recognise a shortage of Year 7 places on their own without having to include spare places in older year groups.

(C) Optimum Size of Schools - Educational Considerations

46.35 The FAS proposals include the enlargement of up to four schools to 240 places per year, i.e. to eight forms of entry. This would give an 11-16 roll of 1200 and a total roll including sixth form of around 1400 - 1450. The four schools concerned are Haydon, Mellow Lane, Queensmead and The Douay Martyrs.

46.36 Some concern was expressed at the public meetings about the large size of these schools if enlarged to this extent, and about the educational and social implications of this for their pupils. The point was made by the FAS officer that there is no clear research evidence to show that large schools are necessarily less successful than smaller schools, and that there are popular and unpopular schools of all sizes.

46.37 Schools of 1400 or more pupils have not however existed hitherto in Hillingdon; the largest is currently The Douay Martyrs with 1134 pupils, and then Haydon with 1027 pupils. An important concern is how far the enlargement of a successful school will change its character and possibly, over time, make it less effective because of the organisational and other changes it will have to make.

46.38 The proposals to enlarge Vyners and Swakeleys Schools have not been associated with this concern about making schools too large, since they would expand these schools only from 150 to 180 places per year, i.e. from an 11-16 capacity of 750 to one of 900. Both schools are very popular, and the proposals to enlarge them have been generally welcomed.

(D) Access for Children from the Local Community

46.39 Some schools in the borough need more places if they are to meet the demand for places from parents who live in the neighbourhood of the school, i.e. the area regarded at its natural catchment area. This is particularly true of Queensmead in South Ruislip and Vyners in Ickenham, and also applies to Haydon if its natural catchment area is seen as including central Ruislip.

46.40 Enlarging popular schools for this reason could conflict with parents’ and governors’ concerns about their school becoming larger, as outlined above. A compromise between

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Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 8 these two pressures might be for schools concerned about the effects of size to expand to 210 places a year rather than to 240.

(E) Impact of School Enlargements on Other Local Schools

46.41 If extra places are created by enlarging schools in areas where there is not due to be a shortage of places, the enlarged schools may draw children away from other schools in the area. This is a possibility in two parts of the borough : in Hayes and Yiewsley, and in Harefield.

46.42 The letter from Evelyns School Governors, attached as Appendix D, expresses their concerns about the potentially serious threat to their pupil numbers if Mellow Lane and Swakeleys Schools are enlarged and if there is an insufficient increase in local pupil numbers to fill these places without detracting from Evelyns School. There are numerous vacant places at Evelyns - about 50 in Year 7, out of 175, - and a similar number are vacant at Hayes Manor School.

46.43 The Director of Education comments that there are sufficient places at these two other schools in Hayes and Yiewsley (both well under two miles from Mellow Lane) to meet anticipated local need for the next few years. When children from the new housing in Yeading start to reach secondary school age in significant numbers, from 1999 onwards, there will certainly be a need for more places in the Hayes area, and this raises the question of re- opening Barnhill School in due course, as explained above. In terms of parental choice, however, there is no doubt that at the present time Mellow Lane and Swakeleys are both popular schools and are over-subscribed each year.

46.44 The letter from John Penrose School Governors, attached as Appendix E, expresses similar concern to that of Evelyns Governors about the potentially harmful effect on John Penrose of expanding other schools in the north of the borough. The governors make the point that half of the school’s new Year 7 pupils come from areas of Hillingdon outside Harefield.

46.45 The Director of Education comments that the extra places proposed by the FAS for schools in Ickenham and Eastcote will all be needed in due course to meet the anticipated increase in pupil numbers in these areas. Extra places at Haydon, Vyners and The Douay Martyrs Schools should not in general draw away pupils who would otherwise have attended John Penrose School. If current preliminary proposals for new housing development in Harefield go ahead in due course, there should in the longer term be many more potential pupils for John Penrose from the immediate area of Harefield.

46.46 Swakeleys School is the only single sex school for girls in the borough, and consequently draws its pupils from a wider area than most schools. It is always heavily oversubscribed, but has fewer places than the adjacent Abbotsfield School for boys - 145 places per year compared to 194. Enlarging Swakeleys to 180 places per year would thus help to improve equal opportunities for girls in single sex education and would enable more

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Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 9 parents to have their first choice of school, while having only a marginal effect on any other school because of its wide “catchment area”.

(F) Improvements to Existing School Buildings

46.47 From comments made by headteachers and/or governors, it seems clear that some schools may be willing to consider enlargement only if their existing premises are improved at the same time. This appears to be true of Mellow Lane, Swakeleys, The Douay Martyrs and Haydon Schools, - to a differing extent in each case. There is no doubt that all these schools would benefit from replacement of old temporary accommodation and/or improvements to make existing permanent buildings more spacious and accessible.

46.48 Access for People with Physical Disabilities : One particular feature from which all schools proposed for enlargement would benefit is better access for people with physical disabilities. This would be particularly beneficial in the case of Haydon School, as one of its feeder schools, Coteford, has special facilities for physically disabled children, and also in the case of Swakeleys and The Douay Martyrs as these are each the only secondary schools of their type in the borough.

(G) The Douay Martyrs School : Impact of Enlargement on the Local Community

46.49 At the public meeting in Ickenham strong objections were expressed by several local residents to the further enlargement of The Douay Martyrs School. Their concerns focused on the environmental impact - on traffic, disruption by pupils going to and from school, on- street parking problems, and the need for new buildings on both sites which could be intrusive.

As the school has already been admitting pupils well above its current admission number of 190 for some years, and has already reached the proposed new Year 7 limit of 240, some residents expressed the view that the school could not be trusted to keep to a limit of 240 in the future once it had new and larger buildings. In this event congestion on the roads and footways in the neighbourhood would only get worse.

46.50 Governors, parents and the headteacher of The Douay Martyrs School attended the Ickenham meeting and all supported the enlargement of the school to enable it to accommodate its existing intake properly on its two sites. They declared that the governors had no intention to admit more than 240 children per year, that the LEA’s adult education centre on the school site would be safeguarded in perpetuity, and that the school no longer had any plan to buy and build on the Green Belt land on the far side of the railway line from the present upper school site.

46.51 One issue which caused some local residents to object to enlargement of the school was the fact that a significant proportion of the school’s pupils do not live in Hillingdon but

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Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 10 come from outside the borough. The headteacher explained that movement across borough boundaries was a common pattern of attendance at church schools, quite apart from the legal requirement not to discriminate against residents of other boroughs or counties. The Director of Education adds that the proportion of out-borough pupils at The Douay Martyrs School as at January 1994 was 28% (294 out of 1033 pupils in Years 7-11). Most of these pupils came from Harrow, Ealing or Brent.

(H) Capital Investment by the FAS

46.52 If all or most of the proposals for enlargement go ahead, the overall capital cost of the new buildings, extensions and adaptations will represent a sizeable capital investment in secondary schools in Hillingdon. Although no estimate of cost has officially been quoted by the FAS, LEA officers consider that a reasonable estimate of the overall cost of all six proposals would be in the region of £11-14 million.

46.53 The FAS have explained that they propose to use some of their own capital funds for this purpose, i.e. some of the capital allocation they will receive from the Government, separately from the funds (or credit approval) available to the Department for Education. This therefore represents a source of capital funding which would not otherwise be available for secondary schools in the borough.

Options for New Places - The LEA’s Response to the FAS

46.54 In the light of all the issues raised in the public consultation and summarised above, Members may wish to consider a range of options for the Committee’s response to the Funding Agency’s consultation on its proposals. Each of the following options represents a set of proposals supporting and/or modifying the FAS’ set of six proposals.

Option 1

46.55 Support the FAS plan in full, - the enlargement of six schools to create 270 new Year 7 places and so meet the anticipated need across the borough up to 1999.

Option 2

46.56 Support five of the FAS’ six proposals but not the enlargement of Mellow Lane to 240 places per year. A smaller enlargement to 210 places per year could be recommended instead, to extend parental choice and to enable some building improvements to be carried out as part of an expansion.

In addition, a new school at Barnhill could be suggested as a second phase of development when the need for this can be established, possibly for 2002.

Option 3

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Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 11 46.57 Support five of the six FAS proposals, but do not support any increase at Mellow Lane. Instead, recommend a new school at Barnhill as soon as the need can be established, possibly for the year 2000 or 2001.

Option 4

46.58 Support the enlargement of four schools as proposed - Swakeleys, Vyners, The Douay Martyrs and Haydon, but not of Mellow Lane, and not of Queensmead as their governors and parents are firmly opposed to enlargement.

Recommend instead a new school at Barnhill (which is within three miles of Queensmead) as soon as the need can be established, possibly for 1999 or 2000.

Option 5 - The Douay Martyrs School :

46.59 Within each of the above four options it could be recommended that The Douay Martyrs School : a) should be enlarged to 240 places per year to reflect its current annual intake and enable it to have suitable accommodation for this number of pupils in all year groups; or b) should be enlarged only to 210 places per year, which in reality would imply a reduction of around 30 pupils per year in future intakes, and would reduce the amount of new building required on the two sites; or c) should not be enlarged at all above its current formal admission number of 190 places per year; this would in reality imply a reduction of around 50 pupils per year in future intakes and would reduce the need for major new building works, once the existing year-groups of 210 - 240 pupils had moved up through the school

46.60 Each of the above options includes the following three proposals :

- to enlarge Swakeleys to 180 places per year - to enlarge Vyners to 180 places per year - to enlarge Haydon to 240 places per year, to meet the anticipated need for more places in Eastcote, Ruislip and Northwood.

46.61 None of these options includes the idea of a new school in Ruislip, for the reasons given in paragraph 3.5 : above all because a realistic case for this could not be made to the Secretary of State for 1999, and because extra places are needed in Ruislip - Eastcote well before this.

46.62 The Committee’s decisions on its response to the FAS will be forwarded to the Funding Agency shortly after the meeting, and it is recommended that the response be sent

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Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 12 also to the governing bodies and headteachers of all GM and LEA secondary schools in the borough and to neighbouring LEAs.

BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS

- FAS Consultative Document of October 1994 - Letter of 7 November to all Members of the Council outlining the FAS proposals - Report to Education Committee on 8 November 1994.

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Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 13 APPENDIX A

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Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 14 APPENDIX B

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Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 15 APPENDIX C

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Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 16 APPENDIX D

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Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 17 APPENDIX E

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Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 18 PART I - MEMBERS AND PUBLIC (INCLUDING THE PRESS)

Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 19 YOUNG PEOPLE AND ADULTS: EDUCATION TRAINING ITEM 47 - ADVICE AND TRAINING TEAM - PROVISION OF SERVICES

Contact Officer: Sylvia Harrison Telephone: 0895 277472

SUMMARY

This report describes management action which has been taken in the Advice and Training Team to deliver existing programmes more effectively. It then asks for Members’ approval for a new structure within the team which will result in a longer-term strategic framework for rationalisation and delivery of all programmes funded by:

West London Training and Enterprise Council (TEC) Employment Services Employment Department.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. That Members:

a) endorse the management action taken by the Group Director: Education Services to bring about an immediate improvement in the service delivery of the Advice and Training Team for Young People in the context of winning contracts to deliver two major new programmes.

b) approve the action outlined in paragraph 47.3 to effect a strategy for the longer term

INFORMATION

47.1 On the appointment of the Head of Service for Young People and Adults: Education and Training, a review of the entire service area was initiated. This resulted in the identification of the need for action to temporarily reorganise the Advice and Training Team for Young People to deliver its programmes more effectively. A description of the 11 programmes is attached at Appendix 1. This reorganisation was necessary particularly in the context of two new major projects for which funding was secured from the Employment Services, one of which, Jobclub, was reported to Committee on 13 September 1994; and a further programme, Community Action, for which details are given in Appendix 2.

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Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 20 47.2 Action taken to date includes:

(a) The temporary redesignation of the current team manager as:

(i) half-time Project Manager of services covering Community Action, and Guidance for Young People and Adults

(ii) half-time European Social Fund Coordinator, to be managed by the Head of Service in cooperation with the Principal Economic Development Officer in the Chief Executive’s Office

(b) Transfer of some of the staff in the Team at Sterling House to Community Action for part of their time, as well as issuing job descriptions for two new members of staff to be appointed on special purpose contracts.

(c) Appointment of a Job Club Leader for the Ruislip Job Club

(d) Transfer of responsibility for management of the two Training for Work Programmes (Employment Training and Employment Placement Networks) to the staff at Barra Hall, which will entail the groups working together to complete the existing contract with the West London TEC, with reporting procedures directly to the Head of Service.

(e) A review of current roles and responsibilities of existing staff to secure continuity of their existing contracts until 31 March 1995, and to improve their conditions of service

47.3 Members are now asked to approve the following action from January to March 1995:

(a) The Head of Service to conduct a feasibility study with the staff at Fountains Mill, Sterling House and Ruislip as to how best to manage and deliver the range and variety of services.

(b) To review all staff contracts to ensure continuity of service delivery from 1 April 1995

(c) A review of the Training for Work Team currently based at Barra Hall to take place, with a view to rationalising the training and guidance services. This to be done with the support of the Manager of the Middlesex Training Centre.

(d) Negotiations to take place with the West London TEC regarding:

(i) the possibility of the Local Authority delivering a new all-age guidance service for young people and adults

(ii) new contracts for Training for Work commencing 1 April 1995

(iii) the development of a coordinated advice and guidance centre in the Hayes area for young people, adults and employers

PART I - MEMBERS AND PUBLIC (INCLUDING THE PRESS)

Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 21 (e) Discussions to take place with Property Services and Social Services regarding site management of Barra Hall, for which Education Services currently has responsibility

47.4 A further report will be made to Committee in March 1995 on progress made in each of these areas of the service with recommendations for further action.

BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS

Reports to Education Committee on 13 September 1994

- Job Clubs in Ruislip and Uxbridge - European Funding for Education and Training Projects

PART I - MEMBERS AND PUBLIC (INCLUDING THE PRESS)

Education Committee - 13 December 1994 Page 22