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 Rutland’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 Department for Education 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.