THIS REPORT RELATES STIRLING COUNCIL TO ITEM 16 ON THE AGENDA STIRLING COUNCIL COMMUNITIES AND CULTURE 2 DECEMBER 2010 NOT EXEMPT COMMUNITY USE OF SCHOOLS POLICY AND STRATEGY 2010-2015 1 SUMMARY 1.1 During the period the Public Private Partnership schools estate and the Raploch Campus were being planned, there was a firm understanding, conveyed to the communities, when consulted, that all schools would be viewed as accessible by the community. 1.2 In September 2009 a Community Use of Schools Policy Group was set up by the Chief Executive Bob Jack to take work forward in this area. This Group comprised:- Head of Schools – Bob Cook (now Belinda Greer) Head of Assets – Bob Gil Head of Communities & Culture – Kathleen Taylor Chief Executive of Active Stirling – Andrew Bain and to be chaired by Kathleen Taylor (Chair). 1.3 This report sets out a revised community use of schools policy and the required strategy strands to ensure maximum community access and use with progress to date against those strands. 2 RECOMMENDATION(S) It is recommended that Council :- 2.1 Agree the policy statement; 2.2 Agree the key principles; 2.3 Agree the strategy strands and that the required actions to date against these strategy strands are noted. 2.4 Agree to note the connections with other areas of work. 3 CONSIDERATIONS 3.1 Schools Estate 3.1.1 Public Private Partnership School Estates Development – there has been extensive Public Private Partnership school estates development over a number of years with the following schools within the programme:- • Balfron High School (PFI) • Dunblane High School • McLaren High School • St. Modan’s High School • Stirling High School • Wallace High School 3.1.2 The full schools estate – this includes in addition to the above Public Private Partnership schools the following: See Appendix 1 (attached). 3.1.3 Raploch Campus is viewed as a Community Campus and includes a schools area which combines the following schools:- • Raploch Nursery • Our Lady’s Primary School • Raploch Primary School 3.2 The policy statement refers to all schools within the Education portfolio, including all non-Public Private Partnership schools. Background Context 3.3 UK Treasury figures for the capital costs of Stirling’s PPP schools is £83 Million, with the total outlay by the Council of £424.54 Million by 2041. For Balfron Private Finance Initiative the established total capital value is £16 Million and total by 2041 is £83.14 Million 3.4 Since the initial meeting the growing difficulties of the Council’s financial position became clearer. There was a decision by Stirling Council Senior Management Team to include an Asset Strand in the Transformation Programme working towards £25-30M savings. At present there is a section on Community Use of Schools recognising that all areas of assets require to be included in contributing to savings. Realising any savings is likely to be towards the end period of the transformation work but will be highly dependent on the groundwork carried out through the policy and strategy work for Community Use of Schools. 3.5 There is also the potential for other providers using schools to increase on site services required by the community. Proposed Policy Statement 3.6 That Stirling Council maximises the use of Public Private Partnership schools, Raploch Campus and others to ensure communities have access to the most modern facilities available within their locale and to encourage synergies of delivery across services and partners for the benefit of communities, within available resources. 3.7 Present Position: Schools and Community Use: It is clear that the present community use starting position (type of use and volume) for each school is different. However, each school is expected to deliver higher levels of community access and use. 3.8 The key principles which have emerged are:- 3.8.1 Principle 1 Secondary schools will be the hub of community activity. Implications – that new community activity will be encouraged into secondary schools initially and that over time existing community activity will be encouraged into secondary schools. This could include new providers of services including possibly greater input from colleges and universities. Reasons – the Public Private Partnership schools have capacity and are state of the art learning centres, able to provide greater access to services and learning activities for children, parents, families and local organisations support community development. The presence of other learning providers, libraries, voluntary and community organisations such as in Raploch provides a healthy mix of key agencies assisting the community. Integrating services for the child and family support will be explored further. 3.8.2 Principle 2 Contextual Statement The primary function of schools is the core curriculum and associated ancillary activity. There is scope to widen the community use of schools activity within a planned and managed approach to the mutual benefit of all. Principle All secondary schools will be open for bookings and other services and partners will work together to have more integrated activities. Implications • Booking systems require to ensure all agreed available accommodation is available for community use. • A single corporate approach to booking management of schools/Raploch Campus is explored and put in place. • All community activity is valued by all services and partners as contributing to the benefit of the community. • Balancing the needs of different users and providers is built into booking systems and user agreements and that an independent appeals system is put in place to deal with competing demands. Council priorities should be clear. Reasons – present booking arrangements are not perceived as uniform and often difficult for users to understand and use. There is also often a sense of individual services not being able to examine their use of space to free up space for other users. 3.8.3 Principle 3 Secondary schools will have a base benchmarking position for community use of accommodation with a requirement to grow beyond this each year. Implications • Systems for tracking accommodation use and reporting require regular updating and reporting to relevant managers Reasons • Managers need a stretch target for improvement. • Underutilisation costs the taxpayer. 3.8.4 Principle 4 Raploch Community Campus moves towards a fuller community access position with partners developing collectively new protocols based on mutual needs and greater understanding of policy drivers and recognising the costs of changes to present PPP contracts. Implications • Mechanisms for new protocols will be required. • Updated identification of the needs of the community will be required. • Flexibility within present contracts will be required. Reasons • Raploch Campus can build on an existing daytime community use. • Raploch Campus is different in setup from the Secondary Schools and in a position to move forward with a wider group of stakeholders. 3.9 Mechanisms for Improving Availability and Uptake by Community • Pilot work in Stirling High has improved the numbers of rooms available for the community and a marketing campaign is in progress. (See Appendix 2). • Baseline percentage use of accommodation is now possible through improved reporting development work. • Audit of storage in all secondary schools and Raploch Campus. 3.10 Strategy: Community Use of Schools Policy (see Appendix 3) There are 6 strands to the Strategy:- Strand 1 Ensuring understanding of the policy and strategy by key services and commitment to new approaches. Strand 2 Establishing present use of facilities, potential for increased use and promotional activity. Stand 3 Roll out to all secondary schools in a phased approach. Strand 4 Find mechanisms to establish venue shifts across school cluster areas. Strand 5 Check changes and concessions for all activity are in line with new charging framework once agreed. Strand 6 Assess potential for other providers of services to use school premises to increase access to the services to the community. 4 POLICY/RESOURCE IMPLICATIONS AND CONSULTATIONS Policy Implications Diversity (age, disability, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation) Yes Sustainability (community, economic, environmental) Yes Corporate/Service Plan Yes Existing Policy or Strategy Yes Risk Yes Resource Implications Financial Yes People Yes Land and Property or IT Systems Yes Consultations Internal or External Consultations Yes Policy Implications 4.1 Diversity Opening up community spaces for community use, if costs are not prohibitive, may encourage more groups to meet and work alongside other groups in the community. 4.2 Sustainability The present economic climate will continue to have pressures for community groups on costs of running buildings and in gaining funding towards costs/refurbishments etc. Groups are more likely to have longer-term sustainability within a school facility and less management pressures through financial concerns. 4.3 Corporate/Service Plan Service plans for schools, communities, assets and possibly others will have collaborative tasks on this agenda. 4.4 Existing Policy or Strategy The present difficulties created by not having a policy statement in writing and clarity of action expectation can be improved. 4.5 Risk Benefit of existing facilities is not maximised. Potential for community groups to expand local networks through close physical working with other groups is not realised. Resource Implications 4.6 Financial • Value for money issues exist when key