Venue: Multi-Location Meeting - Gloucester Room, Guildhall / MS Teams. View directions
Contact: Democratic Services - (01792) 636923
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Disclosures of Personal & Prejudicial Interests. Decision: None Minutes: In accordance with the Code of Conduct adopted by the City & County of Swansea, no interests were declared. |
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To approve & sign the Minutes of the previous meeting(s) as a correct record. Decision: Approved Minutes: Resolved that the Minutes of the Education and Skills Service Transformation Committee held on 27 September be approved and signed as a correct record. |
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Right Schools in Right Places. PDF 162 KB Decision: For Information Minutes: The Cabinet Member for Education and Skills introduced the report and
stated that the report provided an opportunity for the beginning of a
discussion and a review of the whole school estate across the authority. He indicated that the proposed new School Provision Plan (SPP) could
provide an opportunity to develop and deliver the principles for delivering
educational services going forward for many years across the City. The Director of Education stated that proposed plan will support
decision making for school buildings and estates for many years going forward
and will link in with the transformation agenda and demographic changes that
are already taking place across the city. She indicated that the plan will link in well with the Sustainable
Communities for Learning (SCfL)and Strategic Outline
Programme (SOP) initiatives that have already been developed. The Head of Planning & Resources then took the committee through the
circulated report and verbally outlined and updated members on the proposals
contained in the proposed SPP including the following areas: · Background
to the development of the plan which dovetails and links with other initiatives
like SCfL, SOP etc; · Changes and
upgrades to school buildings including capital works and maintenance programme; · Context of the
plan which will become an actual document that can be used, looked at and
referred to by all involved in the education community; · SPP is
suggested to run for a 9 year period to link in with the SCfL,
and SOP which are on similar timescales; · Input of the
Quality in Education (QEd) programme board which
meets monthly to consider school estate issues; · Engagement
with schools and headteacher representatives will also be sought before the
plan would be finalised; ·
Context and background to the development of the
plan, including demographic changes, falling birth rate in Swansea, high inward
migration, changing working patterns, audit commission guidance on school
numbers, Welsh medium provision, faith schools, ALN provision and pupils taught
at home; ·
Discussions have taken place with the
universities and health board to attempt to plan for the rise in inward migrati; ·
Potential impact of strategic housing sites and
developments contained within the LDP; ·
Parental choice impact, school admission numbers
and catchment areas; ·
Potential trigger point in the new plan for a
school review if pupil numbers change by plus/minus 10% over a two year period; ·
School building surveys undertaken each year –
buildings split into 4 categories A, B C or D, and these could be recorded in
the SPP for each school along with information on school building ages; ·
Display Energy Certificates (DEC) ratings for
each school are a good indication of energy efficiency and this data could also
be included in the SPP; ·
Accessibility to school, including transport
links and availability and travel times for children, the SPP could suggest a
limit for travelling for both primary and secondary sectors; ·
Committee members had received information and
discussed the complexities and issues around school transport provision at a
recent workshop; ·
Vocational provision and links with other
providers; · Aim is to
bring a draft version of the plan to the January meeting of this committee for
members to discuss. Members
discussed the report and presentation and asked questions of the Officers and
Cabinet Member who responded accordingly. The key areas
arising from discussions included: ·
Travel time issues for pupils; ·
Need to include all school buildings in plan,
not just main buildings; ·
Audit commission guidance on 6th form
numbers and sustainability of provision going forward; ·
High turnover of pupils, particularly in city
centre and combination of high numbers of new pupils, pupil turnover and
deprivation issues can impact on schools; ·
Size of amenity space in schools for
play/sports etc compared to actual building size could be included in SPP; ·
Huge rise in cost of building materials and
subsequent rise in maintenance costs for schools. The Chair thanked the Head of Education Planning and Resources for her informative report. |
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Work Plan 2023-2024. PDF 25 KB Decision: Noted Minutes: The Chair outlined the workplan for the committee for the remainder of 2023/2024. He proposed that the next meeting in December be held online only via Teams. Members of the committee supported the proposal. |