COUNTY COUNCIL - EDUCATION - 16 MAY 2002

NEW OPPORTUNITIES FUND - PHYSICAL EDUCATION, SPORT AND OUTDOOR EDUCATION

1. The County Council has been provisionally allocated £6.634m from a national funding programme for physical education, and sport and outdoor education provision. The aim of the fund is to bring about a step change in the provision of sporting facilities for young people and the community generally. It is intended to offer not only sporting opportunities, but also to have a long-term impact on key issues facing local communities, such as education, health, crime and drugs use. The fund is intended to provide resources for a group of significant projects in each of the 150 English Local Education Authorities.

2. Hampshire's provisional allocation is based on the size of the school age population and levels of deprivation within the county. The key role of the County Council is to act as the lead organisation for developing a portfolio of projects for which there will be two stages of submission:

Stage One - an overall plan outlining proposals for expenditure of the funding provisionally allocated to a list of projects in priority order.

Stage Two - a detailed application for each of the projects within the grant scheme.

3. Success at both stages will be dependent upon close working relationships being established with a range of partners, including schools, strategic health bodies, sports governing bodies and the voluntary sector.

4. The Stage One portfolio of schemes has been submitted to the New Opportunities Fund with proposals for sports halls, multi-use games areas, and outdoor education facilities.Three multi-use games areas are included in areas of relatively high social deprivation. These would significantly enhance the outdoor games facilities at Bridgemary Community, Gosport, Cowplain Secondary, Waterlooville and
Park Community, Havant for the benefit of pupils and the local communities.

5. The Stage One submission to take up the County Council's indicative allocation of £6.634m is made up of the following schemes:

Funding for provision of sports halls:

· Alderman Quilley Secondary, Eastleigh

· Fernhill Secondary, Farnborough

· Hounsdown Secondary, Totton

· Test Valley Secondary, Stockbridge


Funding for provision of changing facilities to allow community use of sports halls:

· Cams Hill Secondary School, Fareham

· Crestwood Secondary School, Eastleigh


Funding for provision of multi-use games areas:

· Bridgemary Community, Gosport

· Cowplain Secondary, Waterlooville

· Park Community, Havant


Funding for capital improvements to the following outdoor centres, subject to a formal decision to acquire the Gordon Brown Centre at Rotherwick


· Gordon Brown Centre, Rotherwick

· Minstead Study Centre

· Tile Barn Centre, Brockenhurst

6. It is proposed to take up the full allocation and seek contributions from individual schools from their devolved capital towards each of the secondary school projects. As school contributions are in some cases dependent upon devolved capital being available in 2004/05, for which no confirmation from the DfES has yet been received, there is some risk that all of this funding may not be available, although the level of risk is unlikely to be significant . The new opportunities fund also requires the County Council to identify a percentage of the allocation that will be used to support the start-up revenue costs. This is necessary to ensure, particularly with the community use of facilities, that management costs are appropriately funded. It is anticipated that some £85,000 will be required.

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