Meeting documents

            Meeting: Cabinet (County Hall, Durham - Committee Room 2 - 31/07/2008 10:00:00 AM)

                  Item: A7 School Capital Programme - Modernisation Budget Review 2003/2004-2007/2008 - 5 Year Programme 2008/2009-2012/2013

         

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Report of David Williams, Corporate Director, Children and Young People's Services, Stuart Crowe, County Treasurer and Lesley Davies, Acting Director of Corporate Services [Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Children's Services, Councillor C Vasey] [Michele Hodgson, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Resources and Corporate Services]

Purpose of the Report

1 To provide a further update of progress on the School Capital 5 Year Plan 2003/2004 - 2007/2008 since the last update on 21 July 2006. This report will include details on expenditure on school projects funded by the School Modernisation Budget, and also seeks approval for those priorities for the period 2008/2009 to 2012/2013.

Background

2 For the period 2003/2004 - 2007/2008 the Local Authority was allocated £42.74m from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) via School Modernisation Funding as follows:

· 2003/2004 -	£5.94m
· 2004/2005 -	£10.68m
· 2005/2006 -	£7.9m
· 2006/2007 -	£9.5m
· 2007/2008 -	£8.72m
Total	£42.74m

3 A five year programme of proposed projects was approved by Cabinet on 9 December 2004. These school projects were intended to remove surplus places and address suitability and condition needs within schools (mainly in primary schools as Building Schools for the Future funding addresses needs in secondary schools). Appendix 2 shows the latest position on each of these projects together with a breakdown of expenditure to date.

4 The current financial position is as follows:

Total Funding 2003/2004 - 2007/2008 £42.74m
Total Expenditure 2003/2004 - 2007/2008 £42.16m
Balance Remaining £0.58m 5 The Audit Commission and Ofsted have criticised the Authority on a number of occasions for the high proportion of surplus places in the county. Appendix 2 demonstrates that the following projects specifically aimed at addressing surplus places have been completed in the 5 year period:

Project	Surplus Places Removed
· Eldon Lane and Dene Valley Primary Schools amalgamated into a new build primary school (Prince Bishops Primary School)	93
· Closure of Haswell Primary School	106
· Adaptations to Howden-le-Wear Primary School	60
· Murton Nursery, Murton Primary and Murton Jubilee Primary Schools amalgamated into a new build primary school (Murton Community Primary School)	245
· Adaptations to Dean Bank Primary School to create a nursery unit	60
· Elmfield and Stephenson Way Primary Schools amalgamated into one primary school on the premises of Stephenson Way (Stephenson Way Community Primary School)	147
· Ushaw Moor Infant and Junior Schools amalgamated into one primary school in the premises of the former Junior building adapted accordingly (Silver Tree Primary School)	96
· Woodham Burn Infant and Junior Schools amalgamated into one primary school in existing premises adapted accordingly (Woodham Burn Community Primary School)	127
· Woodhouse Close Infant and Junior Schools amalgamated into one primary school in the premises of the former Junior building adapted accordingly ( Woodhouse Community Primary School)	88
· Deneside Infant and Junior Schools amalgamated into one primary school in existing premises adapted accordingly (Seaview Primary School)	91
· Closure of North Blunts Primary School	270
· Closure of Hamsteels Primary School	84
· New build primary school for Byers Green	29
· Tanfield Lea Infant and Junior Schools amalgamated into one primary school in existing premises adapted accordingly (Tanfield Lea Community Primary School)	124
Total	1620

6 The current level of surplus places in primary schools is 15.4% and in secondary schools the level of surplus places is 12%. We aim to reduce both of these figures to 10% using a range of strategies including school reorganisations, rationalisation of accommodation, alternative use of school premises and the removal of split-site and temporary accommodation.

Future Projects and Strategic Planning

7 In October 2007 the Local Authority received notification from the DCSF of its allocation from a range of funding sources for the period 2008/2009 to 2010/2011 including School Modernisation Funding of £19.9m and £14.4m from the Primary Capital Programme which commences in April 2009 and is expected to continue until 2022/2023.

8 The Primary Capital Programme is a Government initiative to enable Local Authorities to implement its commitment to renewing at least half of all primary school buildings by 2022/23 by rebuilding, remodelling or refurbishment. In the view of the Government however, it is much more than a building programme. The Primary Capital Programme is a key component of the Government’s aim to transform education in England and it will also support the delivery of the Children’s Plan.

9 The Government requires that investment should support the transformation of education by:

· raising standards;
· the removal of surplus places, in particular at those schools which have more than 25%;
· improving the condition of school buildings;
· improving the life chances and wellbeing of children and young people; and
· the provision of extended services.

10 To receive the funding, each local authority was required to produce a Primary Strategy for Change by June 2008. This strategy is based on a clear education vision. Local Authorities should use the programme funding to increase capital investment for primary schools and not divert it to other priorities. It is expected that successful Strategies for Change will also seek to join up a number of capital funding streams, including Prudential Borrowing and Schools Devolved Formula Capital Allocations as well as re-investing capital receipts from school reorganisations and closures. The programme aims to improve the life chances and wellbeing of all children through a process of educational transformation which raises standards in improved buildings with a reduction in surplus places.

11 The Local Authority has the lead role in preparing the strategy. This is because, as commissioners of local services, the Local Authority both reflects the needs and aspirations of the local community and contributes to national and local priorities. The Local Authority is best placed to plan strategically and join up planning and funding so that the total capital investment is focussed on services for children and families.

12 The Local Authority was required to consult on, and gain wide agreement to its Primary Strategy for Change. The first consultation took place in Spring 2008.

13 The Strategy was amended to take account of that consultation and was issued in May 2008 for further consultation with a deadline of 12 June 2008. This consultation included seeking the views of stakeholders on the type of schools they would like to see in County Durham.

14 The Strategy was submitted to the DCSF on 16 June 2008, the deadline set by it for submission. It has been made clear to the DCSF that the Strategy was submitted pending final political approval, which had to be delayed because of Council elections and the timetable of Local Government Reorganisation. The complete Primary Strategy for Change is attached as Appendix 4 to this report.

15 Subject to Cabinet approval and the Primary Strategy being approved by the DCSF, the proposed priorities, together with indicative costs for the first four years of the Primary Capital Programme, are as follows:

· The refurbishment to the annex at Green Lane CE Primary School.
· The rationalisation of accommodation at Roseberry Primary School.
· The refurbishment of Finchale Primary School.
· A rebuild of Brandon Primary School, Esh Winning Primary School, Greenland Primary School, Kirk Merrington Primary School and West Cornforth Primary School.
· A rebuild of Shotton Hall Infant and Junior Schools as a new purpose built primary school (consultation underway Summer 2008).
· A reorganisation of education in Delves Lane to develop primary provision.
· The replacement of Coundon Primary School and St Joseph’s RCVA Primary, Coundon with new buildings, possibly relocated on a single site.
· The rebuild of Framwellgate Moor Primary School as part of the groundbreaking specialist science CAMPUS project to provide integrated education 3-18 with Framwellgate School and Durham Trinity School.
· Undertake a full review of primary school provision in Newton Aycliffe.
· Investigate the possible reorganisation of infant and junior schools into primary schools.
· Develop schemes for the refurbishment or remodelling of schools to remove surplus places and to improve schools in poor condition.
· Consider schemes for cross phase co-location with local or national exemplar features.

16 Cabinet will be aware that the proposals for new build schools for Esh Winning and Shotton Hall appeared in the previous 5 year plan but were subsequently deferred. In the case of Esh Winning the deferment was due to the pattern and provision of primary education in the Esh Winning and Hamsteels area needing to be determined. Shotton Hall was deferred to coincide with the completion of the new build Shotton Hall School as part of BSF.

17 The total indicative cost of this programme is £53.5m. Funding identified at present is £35m (refer to paragraph 4 and 7.)

Funding for the proposed schemes in paragraph 15 could be via School Modernisation funding, the Primary Capital Programme, Capital Receipts from school reorganisations and closures and the use of schools’ Devolved Formula Capital and borrowing. Whilst the costs are indicative at this stage they are subject to detailed feasibility studies being carried out. Separate reports will be prepared for Cabinet to consider for each scheme.

18 Attached at Appendix 3 are all of those additional schemes for which approval is sought. Such schemes will help to address condition and suitability issues.

19 A risk assessment has been undertaken in respect of the proposed School Capital Programme and the following conclusions have been reached:

· Not implementing the programme could risk losing the opportunity to support educational transformation for primary aged children.
· Not implementing the recommendation may adversely impact on the Council’s CPA status, or may prevent the Council successfully meeting expectations (e.g. relating to surplus places) in inspections such as the Joint Area Review and the Annual Performance Assessment (APA).
· Not implementing the recommendation may result in the failure to maximise opportunities to achieve value for money and support economic regeneration.

Recommendations

20 Cabinet is recommended to:

(i) note the current financial position (set out in paragraph 4 and 7);

Background Papers

21 July 2006 - Cabinet Report entitled "Education Capital Programme - Modernisation Budget Review".

Contact: Graeme Plews Ext: 3199 GP/SPC/SB/School Capital Programme

Appendix 1: Implications


The Durham Perspective

Our Children and Young People’s Plan sets out a clear vision which is in line with the full “Every Child Matters” agenda. In particular it challenges us to ensure that overall standards continue to rise whilst achievement gaps are reduced. · enjoy school and feel respected;
· can access safe, play, learning and leisure activities that provide opportunities for personal and social development and enjoyment;
· adopt a healthy lifestyle and can access services to support and promote emotional well-being;
· are safe from bullying, crime and anti-social behaviour
· are engaged in shaping and improving their communities;
· have their views on decisions that affect them represented and responded to in a meaningful way.

In pursuit of this vision we are committed to a system of primary education in which young people will be challenged to achieve their fullest potential by excellent teaching founded on a thorough understanding of learning and supported by an ethos of mutual respect. Such teaching, in a personalised and inclusive system will ensure that all young people build successfully on their prior achievements reaching high standards regardless of educational challenges that may arise from their age, class, gender, ethnicity, disability, religion, sexual orientation or academic status. It will further ensure that young people develop a personal vision of their future aspirations, are knowledgeable, can reason and have the ability to think logically and creatively and are personally and emotionally secure.

Through an inspiring curriculum, young people will be supported in gaining an informed view of the world in which they live. They will recognise the importance of, and promote, equality, tolerance and human rights through understanding of, and a respect for, different religious, cultural traditions and values. They will leave this stage of their education, excited and heartened by their progress and well prepared for their future learning.

We will seek to educate all young people as close to their home community as possible, meeting the challenge of rurality through a strategically planned network of provision. This network will work for the benefit of young people in an agreed atmosphere of trust and co-operation with innovative models of governance while providing optimum access to learning opportunities.

Our primary schools will be sustainable and be designed, located, organised and led to support our vision. We will promote and develop a culture, shared by young people, teachers and the community, which values educational achievement for its own sake as well as for the social and economic benefits that it can bring. To this end our schools will play a key role in ensuring the health, safety and welfare of young people and, alongside existing provision, support community capacity-building by providing learning, leisure and recreation for all.

[The term home community is used to describe both geographical location and the communities related to the faith-based education provided in County Durham]

Durham’s Baseline

Our County

Three quarters of County Durham is rural with residents living in small towns and villages. This rural setting is a key factor in the location and size of our primary school provision but the rural nature of the county masks the fact that many of those communities suffer high levels of socio-economic deprivation. The latest Index of Deprivation (ID) data shows some improvement compared to the position in 2004. Despite this County Durham still tops by far the list of deprived shire counties. More than half of 0-11 year olds in County Durham live in the top 30% most deprived wards nationally. Schools are key to changing this as raising educational standards from the earliest age is fundamental to the county’s social and economic re-generation. Investing in teaching, building new schools, removing split site provision, and improving existing buildings to achieve our aim of providing a high quality, flexible and accessible education is a challenge that the Primary Capital Programme provides an opportunity to address. In particular the strategy will play a key part in narrowing the gap between the most deprived wards and the rest of the County.

Annex 1 is a map of County Durham indicating those Super Output Areas (SOAs) which fall into the top 30% nationally.

Standards

Durham pupils perform well in key stage 1 and 2 tests and show good progress across KS2 given the context of the LA FFT KS1 contextual summary.

Despite good overall performance, in 2007 we had significantly fewer pupils achieving level 3+ in mathematics at key stage 1, this being more of an issue for boys. Boys were also below expectation for the percentage of pupils attaining reading level 3+ threshold measure and for the mean science level.

Overall, progress across KS2 is very good given the context of the LA. However, lower and middle achievers at Key Stage 1 - particularly girls - have key stage 2 outcomes that are only in line with their national peer group. The progress of pupils eligible for free school meals is disproportionately low in comparison to non-eligible pupils when compared to national progression FFT LA estimates.

Our good overall progress ensures that across the core subjects at key stage 2, a higher percentage of our schools can be considered high achievers compared with schools nationally and conversely we have fewer schools that might be classed as lower achievers FFT segmentation summary. However, statistically six of our schools are unable to demonstrate satisfactory value-added progress throughout KS2 while showing little improvement or a decline in standards over 3 years. Junior schools are disproportionately represented in this group

Achievement in three of our schools has been below the floor targets for both English and mathematics for the years 2005-07. A further four schools have been below the floor targets in mathematics only for this period.

Children’s Plan and Every Child Matters

Through our Children’s Trust supported by a network of Local Children’s Boards we have a wide ranging commitment to a clear and comprehensive Children and Young People’s Plan which sets ambitious targets for future change. These targets are well aligned with the 2020 goals in the national Children’s Plan and are derived from the Every Child Matters outcomes. They set the context for specific areas of development and improvement.

Health
We are committed to an increasingly healthy and health conscious population. The following are part of this commitment.
· Currently around 50% of schools have achieved Healthy Schools Status with a LAA stretch target of 95% of schools validated by December 2009.
· A new school meals contract is in place from September with clear criteria for food quality and healthy eating standards.
· Each area of the county has a School Sport Co-ordinator Partnership in place and at the last national survey (Oct 2007) levels of participation in PE and sport were above the national average and on track for our LAA stretch target. · the Family Support Strategy has become a catalyst for workforce development. The CWDC core competencies will provide a backbone of professional development for Family Support Workers, supplemented by additional training to enable these workers to provide multi-disciplinary support as we start to develop locality multi-agency teams as part of our Family Pathfinder work;

· we are on course to meet the Government’s 2010 target of all schools providing access to the full core offer. To date 101 schools provide access to the core offer, with a further 98 schools on target for September 2008; · we have co-located the majority of our children’s centres with primary or nursery schools providing opportunities to develop co-ordinated services from pre-birth to eleven. As we roll out the programme through phase 3 we will need to address issues of reach in rural, deprived communities. Our primary schools will continue to play a vital role in this but many will require significant re-modelling and ICT upgrades;

· as part of our target to improve places to go and things to do for young people we are seeking to develop a wide range of approaches appropriate to specific localities. This commitment is supported by County Council funding devolved to Local Children’s Boards to provide for local commissioning in the context of existing youth, community and extended services

Diversity, Choice and Responsiveness to Parents

Surplus Places

All pupil projections are calculated using ‘live birth’ data, housing information and past trends of parental preference to predict the number of children expected in reception in our schools. This information gives an accurate estimate of the number of applications for all schools in the county. In doing so, projected rolls can be compared to school capacities to highlight areas of under or over provision in each school up to 4 years in advance of admission.

The population of County Durham declined throughout the 1990s as the region experienced reducing birth rates and outward migration. However since the late 1990s net migration has become less negative. The latest estimates show that the County has experienced positive net migration since 2001. There is now clear evidence that there is a significant upward shift in fertility within the County which we are now incorporating into our planning.

The current capacity in primary schools across the county is 43,107. At January 2008 there were just fewer than 36,450 pupils on roll (15.4% surplus places). Our aim is to reduce this to less than 10% through school closures, re-organisations, the rationalisation of accommodation, alternative educational use of school premises and co-location of services.

Out of the total 233 infant, junior and primary schools across the county, 51 schools have in excess of 25% surplus places 12 of them are in remote rural areas where numbers can fluctuate considerably but where access to primary education is an important part of our social commitment

Buildings and ICT

Durham County Council manages all its assets on a corporate basis and all Services’ Capital Plans feed into one composite plan which is County Durham’s Asset Management Plan. Attached as Annex 2 is data showing the current condition of each primary school in the County. This data is used with that on surplus places and standards, together with criteria representing our long term aims, to prioritise projects.

Our current primary estate comprises a mixture of traditionally built Victorian and pre-war schools together with a significant number of CLASP buildings and a small proportion of new or relatively new primary schools. The majority of the older schools have traditional layouts with limited flexibility in the use of teaching spaces. Many of the schools built in the 1960s have been converted, with varying degrees of success, from open-plan designs but few schools other than those built most recently meet the objectives outlined in our vision. However our experience of primary school design and build over the last 3 or 4 years has helped us to develop a much clearer understanding of the linkage between school design and current approaches to teaching and learning, the demands of a creative curriculum and pupils' expectations of social, play and circulation spaces. Increasingly we have a sufficiently robust broadband network to apply more widely the lessons of our ICT testbed schools allowing ICT provision to become integrated into all aspects of school life without the need for dedicated ICT suites. These experiences together with the lessons that we are learning through BSF provide a solid base of intelligence to underpin the work of all partners in the capital programme.
Location, Capacity, Accessibility and School Travel

The home to school transport policy of the County Council provides primary school pupils with free home to school transport to the nearest suitable school if that school is more than two miles from the home address measured by the shortest available walking route. The majority of primary schools in the County are located so that the nearest school is less than two miles from pupils’ home addresses. Pupils attending those primary schools in isolated areas are provided with free travel in accordance with the home to school transport policy. The longest travelling distance to the nearest community primary school is approximately 5 miles although there are longer distances involved in attending the nearest faith school with the largest journey being just over 8 miles.

Our Long Term Aims

We recognise that the primary phase of education (which we define as 0-11) plays a critical part in delivering our aspirations building as it does the foundations of future learning and growth. We also know that too often ambition can be constrained and innovation thwarted by learning environments which are in poor repair, cramped or in the wrong location and not fit for purpose. The additional challenges presented by Durham’s unique blend of rurality and socio-economic deprivation must also be part of our strategic planning both in terms of pupil access and the vital part that primary schools play in the wider life of rural community. Our Primary Strategy for Change will seek to meet these challenges through the application of the following principles. We will, over the period of the capital programme, working with Head Teachers, governors and other stakeholders, aim for a programme of investment in all of our schools to develop:

§ a system of primary education characterised by single site 4-11 primary schools - and 0-11 where practicable taking account of the existing range of early years provision;

§ primary schools designed to support a wide range of teaching approaches based on the principle of provision being matched to pupils’ personal needs rather than age;

§ a system of primary education which supports a seamless transition from primary to secondary education through developing:

- co-location of primary and secondary provision;
- integrated 0-18 schooling;
- models of cross phase integrated workforce contracting and deployment;
- enhanced specialist subject facilities in primary schools;

§ a system of primary education which recognises the crucial part that outdoor learning (including sport and recreation) plays in the development of children;

§ a strategic network of primary provision which recognises the importance that schools play in community development and cohesion. We will seek to co-locate community services such as library, health, post office, old people’s services, small business, community access point, and retail where that is appropriate and where the security of pupils can be ensured;

§ new forms of governance such as federations and educational trusts to support planned, strategic collaboration between small rural schools (or between small schools and a large school) to support localised education and community engagement whilst ensuring curriculum breadth for pupils (including extended provision, out of hours opportunities, sport, culture and performance);

§ ICT systems which support a wide range of personalised teaching and learning approaches in individual schools and provide a reliable real-time teaching learning and management infrastructure for collaborative models of provision;

§ further our commitment to inclusion through building on our “Communities of Learning” and seeking where possible to co-locate specialist provision for pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities with mainstream schools;

§ a programme which takes account, in prioritising projects, of the BSF timescale, to maximise the possibilities of co-location or integrated provision with the resultant benefits of pooled resources and procurement efficiencies;

In addition we will prioritise national or local exemplar schemes which will provide a context for the further development of innovative ways of working.

We believe that this approach together with the national priorities will support transformation and improvement across all the key areas detailed below.

Standards

Viewed over a number of years, Durham pupils perform well in Key Stage 1 and 2 tests and show good progress across KS2. However we are able to identify some clear areas of underachievement for specific groups of pupils and in a small number of hard-to-shift schools.

The greater degree of personalisation which underlies our change strategy is specifically aimed at ensuring that all pupils are able to build successfully on prior learning. The evidence from our work in the national ICT testbed project and the potential of our county-wide learning platform will provide an important starting point for our personalising agenda.

We have an impressive record in school improvement, culminating in our Beacon Status, and we take firm action in tackling persistently underachieving schools through support, intervention and, where necessary, amalgamation or closure. This will continue and the re-development of underperforming schools (those in OfSTED categories or persistently below floor targets) will be a key priority for us. Through this programme we will ensure that we have no schools in OfSTED categories of concern, a higher proportion than nationally rated good and outstanding and all schools performing above floor targets.

Our research demonstrates that many of our pupils progress less well when they have an additional transfer between schools at age seven and we have progressively eliminated this break through a long-standing programme of amalgamations which will be built upon through the lifetime of the strategy. This thinking also underpins our commitment to explore radical approaches to primary/secondary transition. We are already working with schools on potential co-location schemes as well as at least one potential 0-18 development. Such schemes will be prioritised where possible to provide sources of information to improve transition strategies across the county.

In our most recent new build primary schools we have developed greater flexibility in the design and use of spaces for learning. This experience coupled with feedback from staff and pupils provides a valuable resource for the further development of a personalised learning environment.

Every Child Matters

Extended Schools

Our strategy for change is based on a commitment to the development of the whole child within a clear community context. Our programme of development will take account of the significant progress already made in the development of integrated services built around school clusters and the work of Sure Start particularly in the co-location of children’s centres with primary schools. This, together with the strategic connections to our multi-agency Local Children’s Boards means that all primary renewal will be set in a community context taking account of local priorities and meeting local needs. We will design primary schools with the capacity to be as multi-functional as possible. This will be a particular priority in small rural communities where such schools will provide a real “heart” to village life.

SEN

Our “All Together Better” strategy for inclusion has provided a successful framework for the development of real local partnerships to support children with learning difficulties and disabilities and we will seek to use this collaborative experience to target renewal and refurbishment at local need and taking account of local expertise. Our commitment to educate children as close to their home as possible means that all of our refurbished or new schools will be designed to take account of a wide range of physical, emotional and learning needs as well as meeting all DDA requirements.

Health

We are committed to improving the health of children and young people and we will therefore ensure high quality kitchen and dining facilities that pupils and staff can access to consume healthy nutritious food and drink in pleasant, social environments.

We will therefore:

· ensure all schools have good quality kitchen facilities to enable the onsite production of healthy, fresh ‘home cooked food’ for pupils and staff;
· ensure that all pupils have access to nutritious, healthy food and drinks across the school day;
· improve / upgrade dining room facilities to provide a relaxed and civilised social dining experience;

In addition we will build on our current, highly successful, School Sport Co-ordinator partnerships to create a world-class system for physical education and sport and deliver the 5-hour offer. To do this we will work with our specialist sport and PE team and our school grounds development officers to:

· develop playgrounds which promote physical activity and well-being - modelled on the “zone parks” which are already established in some primary schools;
· provide new flexible spaces, both indoors and out, to cater for the full range of learning needs in the traditional curriculum; outdoor and adventurous activities, gymnastics, dance, athletics and games as well as for new areas such as martial arts, archery and new age curling;
· bring together education and leisure facilities to broaden opportunities and, in particular provide enhanced opportunities for swimming;
· develop opportunities for learning outside the classroom in all aspects of school life.

Community Cohesion

Our commitment to placing our rebuilt or refurbished primary schools at the heart of their communities is based on recognition that, for many families, the primary school is their main regular point of contact with local and national services. We will therefore take further our current programme to develop extended schools and Sure Start Children’s centres. We will continue to co-locate Children’s Centres and a range of family and community services in our primary schools and we will develop innovative approaches to access to services through primary schools in our small rural communities where it may not always be cost effective to co-locate them. This approach to the most effective use of the primary school estate will also form a key part of our strategic approach to removing surplus places particularly in rural areas.

Diversity Choice and Responsiveness to Parents

Our long term transformation strategy is designed to improve primary provision across the authority. We recognise that improvements to the primary estate must reflect our educational ambitions and be linked to developments in curriculum, learning and teaching and emotional well-being. The strategy takes account of the reality of Durham’s social and physical geography.

Rurality

In order to guarantee good access for our youngest pupils and to take account of the central position of primary schools in rural communities our schools are, and usually will in the future be, small by national standards. We have already developed experience in managing this potential tension through the creation of hard federations between pairs of schools and we will work with parents, governors and Headteachers to develop a range of governance models often bringing groups of schools together to maximise opportunities for pupils and to strengthen leadership and management capacity. We will build on our experience of pathfinder trusts to explore ways of bringing all community stakeholders together to maximise the benefits of a range of experience, shared funding and new models of collaborative staffing.

We have already started initial feasibility studies on all-age schools and as part of this process we will encourage the development of primary schools with specialist facilities working in partnership with specialist community or foundation schools and with academies in order to facilitate further development of integrated provision.

Surplus Places

Our aim is to reduce the overall surplus capacity across our primary estate to below 10% and to ensure that no schools exceed 25% surplus places. We will use a range of strategies including school closures and re-organisations, rationalisation of accommodation, alternative use of school premises and the removal of temporary and split-site accommodation. In particular we will seek to support our commitment to outdoor learning by identifying surplus capacity in schools located in educationally “interesting” locations in order to develop day study centres for outdoor activities and field studies.

We receive pupil roll data from primary schools three times per year and this enables us to maintain an accurate picture on the amount of surplus places in individual schools, specific areas and across the County as a whole. This data, together with that on the condition and suitability of school buildings, education standards, IMD, information on deprivation, running costs and our local priorities for action will be used to produce a robust list of priorities for action. Emphasis will be given to surplus place removal and improving the condition of our buildings, particularly those with more than 25% surplus places.

We currently have a small number of schools which regularly receive more applications for places than there are places available. Where these schools demonstrate that they provide consistently high levels of educational achievement at key stages 1 and 2 we will put in place appropriate expansion plans.

The development of inclusive education provision in County Durham has been shaped by involving fully parents and relevant stakeholders. This approach will continue in discussions concerning the future pattern and provision of schooling. In addition children and young people in County Durham will be fully engaged in dialogue by establishing young people’s reference groups and a Standing Conference of young people. This will build on our nationally recognised “Investing in Children” programme creating a mechanism through which children and young people can engage in dialogue on issues in which they have an interest.

Our consultation process for the development of our Primary Strategy for Change took account of the views of all stakeholders. (We consider relevant stakeholders to be Governors, school staff, parents, pupils, Dioceses, trade unions, district and parish councils, neighbouring local authorities, and the wider community). This level of consultation will extend to individual projects, with particular attention given to involving parents and pupils, as engaging with all interested parties is essential to ensure that the pattern and provision of schooling including subsequent building developments meet the needs of the school and the community whilst contributing to the overall Local Authority strategy. Consultation on the first draft of our Primary Strategy for Change was held between 19 March 2008 and 26 April 2008 and this consultation on the final draft ended on 13 June 2008 to enable the Strategy to be submitted to the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) by the deadline of 16 June 2008.

Buildings and ICT

Our strategic plans for the primary estate are tailored specifically to the particular challenges of our rurality and socio-economic deprivation. We are committed to a 0-11 view of primary education and these factors taken together require that our network of primary schools is developed to minimise travel-to-learn time. We know from previous work that maintaining reasonable travel patterns will result in a school size range of <50 - 350+ pupils with most of our schools in the range 90 - 210. This reality underpins our plans for collaborative governance and shared staffing. We will also build on our learning from the national ICT testbed programme with schools in the Crook and Willington district to ensure that all schools can maximise use of The Durham Learning Gateway, our county learning platform, and that collaborative groups of schools can use the most up-to-date technology to support shared teaching, learning and management.

We will set out to develop further the “Design for Learning” principles that have underpinned our latest building programme with the aim to ensure that all our schools:

· are innovative sustainable and accessible;
· are characterised by flexible learning spaces;
· encourage positive social interactions;
· are inspirational allowing both pupils and school staff to maximise their potential;
· encourage independent study and research;
· provide enhanced resources to support more advanced study in specialist areas of the curriculum;
· are welcoming and accessible to parents;
· make positive contributions to community learning, enjoyment and cohesion.

Our ambition is to ensure that all schools in the authority will benefit from this strategy. To this end we will work with partners in other services, voluntary organisations and the private sector to align capital and revenue funding streams to support new approaches to co-located service provision. We will seek to maximise capital receipts arising from the implementation of the strategy ensuring that this adds to investment. Wherever possible we will examine the potential of co-location to ensure maximum impact from our investment and, in addition, we will work with headteachers to ensure that individual school’s devolved capital expenditure plans are aligned to the practical implications of our shared educational vision.

We will, through high standards of environmental performance and design quality, harness the opportunities presented through the Strategy to drive down carbon emissions and promote sustainable behaviours and skills in all schools by:

· achieving a minimum BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) Schools rating of ‘Very Good’ for all schools with an aspiration to excellent;
· - energy consumption/carbon dioxide emissions;
- water consumption;
- waste disposal to landfill;
- negative impacts on local wildlife and eco-systems;
- transport impacts;
· maximising:
- the use of sustainable materials;
- the use of renewable energy sources;
- re-use and recycling;
- use of native species for landscaped areas;
- more sustainable transport choices;
- opportunities for a wide range of outdoor learning.

In addition we will:

· adopt a sustainable procurement policy;
· strive for sustainable construction and land management;
· work with the national task group to seek to develop zero carbon buildings

Planning, monitoring and evaluation

The strategy will be managed through our Primary Capital Programme Board representing key partners including the county’s Asset Management planning Working Group. The board will oversee strategy, set priorities and draw together funding streams. In particular the board will ensure that all County Council capital programmes (including BSF) work in alignment with the Primary Capital Strategy and will plan to maximise the use of funding from other sources including potential capital receipts generated throughout the transformation process. The programme will be monitored at different levels within the service. Each building project will have a project manager to ensure that the project is completed on time and within budget. CYPS will through its capital programme and asset management programme ensure that the Primary Capital Programme “runs on track” and achieves its aims. Part of this process will including providing the County Council’s Cabinet with progress reports. The Head of School Achievement through School Improvement Partners will monitor the impact of school replacement and refurbishment on educational standards and the quality of provision ensuring that clear improvement targets are set and met for our long term aims based on current levels of performance.

Our Approach To Change

Capacity building, change management, planning, monitoring and evaluation

The process of developing our Primary Strategy for Change has brought together a powerful partnership of stakeholders. The creation of our Primary Capital Programme Board has not only brought together local authority and diocesan expertise but has also included key personnel from our existing BSF programme. In addition we will establish a “Durham Primary Parliament” of practitioners, governors, parents, pupils and other stakeholders to underpin a consistent and regular programme of communication with all relevant parties to involve them fully in the process of strategic change. This will augment consultations on specific proposals and the methods of communication will include:

· A regular newsletter
· Press releases
· Briefing sessions for appropriate stakeholders
· Updates posted on the County Council website and Schools Extranet

This process overseen by the Board will ensure that the widest range of experience and expertise is informs the implementation and development of the strategy.

Our aims and ambitions are shared corporately within the authority and the lead member for Children and Young People’s Services is committed to working with the Board to ensure delivery. Final formal Cabinet approval has been delayed due to the changes around local government re-organisation in Durham, the period of purdah leading up to the election and the process of appointing a new Cabinet.

Our Primary Strategy for Change has already been the subject of two extensive consultation exercises with relevant stakeholders to make sure that our vision for transforming education is in accordance with their views and that the type of schools throughout the county are what parents, pupils and the wider community would wish to see. As the strategy moves forward specific proposals will be the subject of Durham’s protocol for consultation which will involve parents, pupils, school staff, Governors, trade unions, neighbouring authorities, parish and town councils and the wider community.

The process of prioritisation, project management and overall delivery will be vested in the Project Board. Each individual project will have a project manager and a management group answerable to the board and there will be a strong linkage to Durham’s LEP once our private partner has been identified. This organisational structure also provides a clear mechanism for monitoring the progress of projects and evaluating project impact against our strategic objectives to inform future development

Finance

Subject to the approval of our Primary Strategy for Change, Durham County Council has been notified that it will receive £6.01m in 2009/10 and £8.39m in 2010/11. For future years we may receive £4.5m. The County Council intends to align this funding with other education capital grants and by working in partnership with schools to utilise devolved formula capital where possible. Any receipts from the disposal of education land resulting from the programme will also be used to support the funding of the programme. In addition we will seek to align other sources of capital funding from within the county council and from other partners to provide funding packages for multi use developments.In appropriate circumstances this may involve an element of prudential borrowing.

The Primary Strategy for Change has been developed with the two dioceses working within County Durham and the two dioceses will be represented on the Primary Capital Project Board. Where proposals relate to aided schools, funding mechanisms will be agreed with the relevant diocese to ensure best value.

A number of projects will involve co-location of premises. In some case this will be cross phase and in those cases funding will be aligned with BSF developments in order to maximise the effective use of funding.

Our overall commitment is to ensure that primary schools in the future make a significant contribution to a wide range of social, economic and environmental outcomes as well as their core education function. To this end we will expect to develop further our expertise in assembling funding packages from a wide range of sources as well as our ability to develop management and governance structures to ensure that the key objectives of each project are met. Our experience in the management of a wide range of extended schooling projects provides a secure grounding in this work and, in particular, has helped us to develop considerable expertise in managing appropriately the VAT implications

Design

As part of the requirements for Durham's Building Schools for the Future programme we will appoint Technical Advisors and part of their brief will be to act as design champion and Client Design Advisor. We will also replicate our existing good practice of design evaluation and review through a structured programme of engagements with key stakeholders and our internal education, estates, design/technical and sustainability advisors. We will also continue to engage with our CABE enabler for external challenge and support.

Proposals for the renewal and/or refurbishment of school facilities will:

· be affordable, and represent best value for money in terms of supporting delivery of transformation having regard to whole life costs;
· provide facilities of an appropriate size and standard having regard to current and predicted school populations and developments in curriculum and technology;
· provide flexible and adaptable school facilities which will support delivery of our vision for educational transformation, including collaborative approaches to the delivery of education, to enable learning to take place anywhere, any time;
· provide solutions which design out the potential for negative social interactions such as bullying, and which support inclusion, accessibility and school security;
· contribute to the delivery of national and local sustainability policies and targets and promote wider awareness of the importance of sustainability through the adoption of a low energy, low maintenance strategy, with all schemes achieving at least a ‘Very Good’ BREEAM Schools rating and incorporating visible sustainable design features and outdoor learning facilities which will help pupils learn about the natural world and sustainable living;
· contribute, through design excellence, to the regeneration of the community in which they are located;
· create equality of opportunity in education for every child in primary school education.
· provide stimulating environments which promote effective learning, are free of the need for immediate structural repairs and free of features which impact adversely on curriculum delivery, school management and/or staff and pupil morale;
· remove or minimise the amount of CLASP system buildings, which in most cases constrain design and the achievement of our targets in relation to value for money and the eradication of suitability and accessibility issues;
· embody fully integrated provision for the innovative use of ICT, in accordance with the Council’s ICT Strategy and aligned to the BSF ICT solution as well as our desire to promote and support collaborative approaches to the delivery of education;
· incorporate, as an integral part of the “building” design solution, intelligent buildings technologies to facilitate efficient management and administration of the premises, services and activities associated with them, so that opportunities for savings in the initial capital and subsequent whole life costs associated with the school are taken;
·be designed through full engagement with all stakeholders, including the school and local communities;
·accommodate extended/out of hours use in line with multi-agency service delivery, community regeneration and local requirements.

As the strategy rolls out we will work with individual schools to ensure that they have a realistic understanding of their place in the overall strategy in terms of timing and likely capital availability. We have already agreed with our schools that these discussions will inform their strategic deployment of devolved capital and their investment plans will be supported by our development of a catalogue of exemplar designs for whole schools, individual teaching spaces, school entrances, circulation and outdoor areas as well as toilet and dining facilities. Through this mechanism we will be able to ensure that individual school developments support the longer term strategic programme with our ambition that all schools and therefore all children and young people can benefit from our transformation plans.

Procurement

In order to ensure that Durham County Council achieves value for money, reduces duplication of effort and maximises efficiencies throughout the Primary Capital Program the Council will actively pursue appropriate joint procurement opportunities across the authority and/or region at an early stage. A full appraisal process will be undertaken which will consider all of the options available including utilising the DCC LEP which will be established through DCC’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) program early in 2009.

Shotton Hall Primary School is currently being considered as a co-located school with Shotton Hall (Secondary) School - a PFI school under DCC’s BSF programme should the proposal to reorganize the Infant and Junior Schools into a new build primary school be approved. Other primary schools may be considered as PFI projects where appropriate.

Supporting this objective, a key part of achieving educational transformation is the substantial investment in new technology and ICT that PCP will be delivering, it is therefore essential that school design and building works integrate fully with the ICT component of schools’ visions. In order to ensure that the hardware procured conforms to all necessary standards and is proven to deliver value for money, the procurement may be undertaken either by utilizing existing DCC contracts or by running further competitions through established frameworks such as BECTA or Catalyst (OGC).

In the context of BSF the County Council is currently developing a Managed Service Partnership (MSP). This partnership, comprising of in-house provision and an ICT Strategic Partner (procured via the LEP), will provide a comprehensive service covering all aspects of the BSF ICT managed service requirement. Service delivery may be drawn from existing and planned in-house services along with completely new services drawn in from the private sector.

Conclusion

This strategy builds on the strengths of primary education in County Durham and will make a significant contribution to our ambition for consistently excellent standards. It is designed to deliver locally based, high quality, stimulating and exciting education for all young people in Durham. It will provide parental choice and diversity through a first class primary estate characterised by flexible and inspirational learning environments.
ANNEXES

Annex 1 Index of Deprivation 2007: Distribution of the Overall Index

Annex 2 Condition Matrix 2008

INITIAL INVESTMENT PRIORITIES

We will align all of the funding sources to support our ambitious programme of school building, refurbishment and remodelling. Our priorities for the first four years of the programme, dependent on our ability to align a range of capital funding streams are ambitious. They include:

· Refurbishment of Green Lane C.E. Primary School to improve accommodation and remove surplus places
· Rationalisation of accommodation at Roseberry Primary School to remove surplus places
· New build primary school to replace Esh Winning Primary School to remove surplus places and provide first class accommodation on a single site;
· New build primary school to replace Brandon Primary School to remove surplus places and provide first class accommodation.
· The refurbishment of Finchale Primary School to remove surplus places, improve accessibility and provide first class accommodation;
· A new primary school to replace Greenland Primary School, eliminating surplus places and providing, on a single site, first class accommodation, and playing field.;
· A reorganisation of education in Delves Lane to develop primary provision
· To replace the existing accommodation at Kirk Merrington Primary School with a new build to provide first class accommodation and the capacity to meet the demand for places;
· To re-organise Shotton Hall Infant and Junior School into a new build primary school eliminating surplus places and providing seamless progression for pupils with first class accommodation;
· To replace the existing buildings at West Cornforth Primary School to provide first class accommodation in a single building;
· To replace Coundon Primary School and St. Joseph’s RCVA Primary Coundon with new buildings to provide first class accommodation. We intend to investigate the potential for co-locating the two new schools on a single site;
· To replace Framwellgate Moor Primary School as part of the groundbreaking specialist science CAMPUS project to provide integrated education 3-18 with Framwellgate School Durham and Durham Trinity School;
· Conduct a full review of primary school provision in Newton Aycliffe
· Continue to investigate potential re-organisations of infant and junior schools into primary schools
· Continue to develop schemes for refurbishment or remodelling of schools to remove surplus places and revitalise schools that are in poor condition.
· Consider schemes for cross phase co-location with local or national exemplar features.

To view tables in report, please refer to PDF attachement or hard copies located in the Record Office or Corporate Services.

Attachments

 School Capital Programme.pdf