Agenda item

The Cabinet considered a joint report of the Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services and Corporate Director of Resources which provided details of the current position of Wellfield school and detailed the steps taken since 2016 to prevent the school’s significant deficit budget, increasing further. The report set out the challenges the school was facing and the difficulty of current curriculum planning, whilst still being impeded by its historic financial position.

The report recommended that the Council writes off the accumulated deficit of the school at the point of conversion to academy with New College Durham Academies Trust (NCDAT) Multi Academy Trust. This would support the Trust and school to secure the current good standard of educational provision for the communities the school serves (for copy of report see file of minutes).

Councillor T Henderson, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People’s Services supported the proposals set out in the report. Joining an established Multi Academy Trust would be enabled by the Council writing off the historic deficit to provide sufficient high quality education to children living in the area.

The Council had a strong and effective working relationship with the academy trust and the Department for Education were supportive of the proposal to develop and expand the Multi Academy Trust. This would be a viable financial solution for the future of the school in terms of sustaining and maintaining educational standards.

Councillor R Bell, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Finance supported the proposals set out in the report and explained that the financial issues at Wellfield started over ten years ago due to falling standards. It had been agreed in 2018 to write off the deficit if the school joined a Multi Academy Trust, however, the move never materialised. Since that time the school had worked hard to improve standards of learning and found itself in a much better position. There was a continuing challenge because of the legacy deficit. The full allocation of money to support curriculum development and learning would be met from earmarked reserve and was consistent with previous Cabinet decisions.

Resolved:

That the recommendations in the report be approved.