Stephenson Green
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STEPHENSON GREEN PROOF OF EVIDENCE 1.0 Introduction 1.1 I am Susan Margaret Owen and I hold the post of Strategic Officer with Leicestershire Council. I am responsible for the planning and provision of pupil places in Leicestershire. I have been employed by Leicestershire County Council (LCC) since February 2002 and have held my present post since July 2011. I have over 10 years experience of the planning and provision of pupil places and have held various posts in the public sector including Business Manager at a Leicestershire Upper school. 1.2 My proof is in support of the LCC’s request that appropriate and adequate planning obligations be secured under a section 106 agreement with the LCC for educational requirements to make the proposed development acceptable and sustainable in planning terms. 1.3 In preparing my proof I have had regard to the criteria for developer contributions under Circular 05/2005 and to the relevant provisions of the Community Infrastructure Levy regulations 2010. 1.4 A colleague, Andrew Tyrer, the County Council’s Developer Contributions Officer, has produced in his proof the required key planning and developer contributions policies which underpin the LCC’s case but which I will not repeat in my proof. 1 2.0 EDUCATION 2.1 The County Council is the Local Authority (LA) and has statutory responsibility for the provision of education services. Under Section 14 of the 1996 Education Act, local authorities must secure sufficient appropriate school places to serve their area. The available schools must be sufficient in number, character and equipment to provide for all pupils the opportunity of appropriate education. Section 2 of the 2006 Education and Inspections Act places Leicestershire Children and Young People’s Service as the appropriate local authority, under a further duty to secure diversity in the provision of schools and increase opportunities for parental choice. 2.2 The 2006 Act also casts local authorities in the role of ‘commissioners of places’ and requires the running of new schools to be subject to open competition, unless there are exceptional circumstances. Groups such as parents and faith communities are thus encouraged to ‘bid’ to run new schools. It must be noted that the competition process adds to the timescales and complexity of opening schools on new developments. 3.0 ADMISSIONS POLICY 3.1 Under Section 84 of the School Standards and Framework Act (SSFA) 1998 as amended by Section 40 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 the School Admissions Code gives the statutory basis for admissions to all maintained schools. In compliance with the Schools Admission Code the Leicestershire County Council has a School Admissions Policy (SAP) a copy of which is attached as 2 Appendix A. The County Council has a duty to provide school places for all pupils resident in its area: Leicestershire achieves this by giving high priority to catchment area pupils and allowing parental preference wherever possible. Within the SAP it lists children’s entitlement as:- • A place in the catchment area school • A place in a preferred school, if there is room • To be considered according to the same priority criteria as other children where the preferred school is oversubscribed. In operating this policy the LA arrangements comply fully with the mandatory requirements of the School Admissions Code and Part 3 of the SSFA. Every school has an Admission Number (AN) which is calculated by dividing the net capacity of a school by the number of year groups. 4.0 MAINSTREAM HOME-SCHOOL /COLLEGE TRANSPORT POLICY 4.1 The Local Authority has a duty to make arrangements to facilitate attendance at Schools and Colleges by providing transport in certain circumstances. The Mainstream Home-School/College Transport Policy (Version May 2011) document sets out the Policy and Procedures that apply. Please see Appendix B. 3 4.2 Free transport is provided under the Education Act 1996, Sec 444(5) for: Primary age pupils who attend the catchment school for their home address and the distance is more than 2 miles. Secondary age pupils who attend a catchment school for their home address and the distance is more than 3 miles. 4.3 Distances are measured by the shortest available walking route from the middle of the road immediately outside the home address to the nearest school or college entrance. A route is available if it is a route along which a child accompanied by a responsible adult can walk with reasonable safety to school. Distances are measured in a consistent fashion using the County Council’s MapInfo software. 5.0 CALCULATING SCHOOL NET CAPACITIES 5.1 The Secretary of State requires all LA’S under Section 29(1) of the Education Act 1996 to inform the Department of the Net Capacity (NC) of each school in its area and any changes to a school’s net capacity. The Department for Education and Schools published guidance in August 2002 – “Assessing the Net Capacity of Schools”. Please see Appendix C (Core Evidence). 5.2 Net capacity was devised by the DFE as a single, robust and consistent method of assessing the capacity of schools. For Primary schools the NC is calculated on the basis of the number and size of spaces designated as class bases. For Secondary schools it is based on the number, size and type of teaching bases and the age range of the school. In both cases it is checked against the total useable space available which must be measured and 4 ensures that there is neither too much nor too little space available to support the core teaching activities. 5.3 Every school by law has to have a separate Admission Number (AN) to determine how many children can be legally admitted to that school year by the Admissions Authority, in this case the Leicestershire County Council. The Local Authority and the School do not have a say in how the NC is calculated, as it is calculated using a national formula as set out by the DFE. In the case of a Primary school a figure of 90% of the maximum capacity is used as the minimum capacity figure and therefore set a range within which the school can set its Admission Number. In the case of secondary schools a figure of 10% lower than the maximum capacity is used as the minimum capacity to generate the capacity range. 5.4 Over the County, schools vary in age, design, shape and site. The Government acknowledges that a single formula could not take into account all of the different varieties of schools, so they devised the net capacity assessment to give a range of numbers of children who could safely attend the school. (A maximum and a minimum capacity). It is then down to the Head and Governors of each school in consultation with the Local Authority to determine what is an appropriate maximum number of children for that school. This has to be on the range given by the Government formula, but allows schools to take into account individual circumstances of their own schools, including the educational profile of the pupils attending the school, how the school is organised and how the curriculum is arranged and delivered, and how buildings and the site is set out. 5 5.5 This means that for some schools, the school can easily set the number of children at the top of the range and be satisfied that all children will have sufficient space, both during lessons and during break times to be safe and to be able to develop, to learn and to be sociable. 5.6 Other schools, however, may need to set their net capacity at the lowest part of the range if there is some complexity of the buildings or site or for educational or organisational reasons. 5.7 Many schools, however, set their capacity at some point along the range. Every school tries to maximise the number of children that it believes it can safely accommodate, but has to balance other factors such as educational outcomes, safety and practicalities to achieve this balance. 5.8 The reasons for Admission Numbers are as follows: (i) The Local Authority is funded for the number of pupils and not the number of places in schools. (ii) To ensure Key Stage One class sizes are at or below 30 to comply with the statutory requirement. (iii) Leicestershire Local Authority is of the view that the efficient use of resources is prejudiced when accommodation is under-utilised in some schools whilst other schools may have numbers in excess of their capacity. (iv) It is important that group sizes are not excessive, particularly in specialist areas (e.g. Science and Design), where group sizes have to 6 be limited for safety reasons, but also for the many other facilities needed in schools such as toilets, playgrounds and playing fields. (v) Admission Numbers enable schools to plan for the future. As complex social organisations, schools need to be able to plan for the groupings of pupils, curriculum provision, class and set sizes, both teachers' and pupils' timetables and the appointment and allocation of staff. 5.9 If a school sets an Admission Number which is above the maximum capacity figure then it must fund the provision of the additional accommodation required to educate the pupils it is agreeing to admit. 5.10 If a school wishes to set an Admission number which is below it’s minimum capacity then it is restricting and reducing the availability and choice of pupil places within an area and therefore the Local Authority must publish a Statutory Notice to enable it to do so.