Contact: Ian Lawson, Strategic Planning Officer (01962 846350, e-mail: [email protected])

1 Summary

1.1 It is recommended that the Executive Member for Education should approve the School Organisation Plan 2003/04 - 2007/08 (2004 Update), as amended following consultation with schools and other interested parties.

2 School Organisation Plan

2.1 It is a requirement of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 that the LEA should produce a School Organisation Plan (SOP). Hitherto, this has been an annual requirement, but regulations made by Parliament in 2003 have changed, so that it is now only a statutory requirement to publish a SOP every three years, unless there has been a significant change in circumstances. In due course, the requirement to publish a SOP may be subsumed within a single education plan for the authority and may be further affected by requirements concerning the planning of children's services..

2.2 As well as being a position statement on policies guiding the provision of school places, the SOP is a valuable planning tool to respond to new developments and the need to review surplus places. Consequently, authorities are encouraged to update the SOP each year so that it can continue to be used in this way.

3 2004 Review

3.1 The current SOP, covering the period 2003/04 - 2007/08, was approved by the School Organisation Committee on 16 December 2003. Copies of the approved plan were circulated to all county councillors and members of the Education Policy Review Committee, district councils and adjoining LEAs and placed on deposit in all public libraries in the county. Head teachers and chairs of governors were notified and the plan is available on the County Council's web-site.

3.2 The data and factual statements in the approved SOP have now been updated. These cover principally:

_ updating of school capacities and numbers on roll for individual schools to January 2004. These provide the base data for the Plan;

_ revision of Section B to record progress since publication of the last Plan;

_ updating of information on demographic trends and surplus places in the introduction to Section C;

_ revised statistics and commentaries for individual planning areas in section C2;

_ updating of statistical tables.

3.3 No alterations need to be made to the policy sections, so there is no requirement for publication of a new SOP.

3.4 The formal process for a new SOP requires a period for representations and for the plan to be submitted to the School Organisation Committee (SOC) for approval. Whilst there is no statutory requirement for the SOC to take part in the interim review of a plan, that body does provide a focussed forum to debate issues raised, and will be expected to have regard to the reviewed plan when making decisions on statutory proposals for changes to the organisation of individual schools. The SOC was, therefore, invited to comment on the reviewed plan during the consultation period.

3.5 With the agreement of the Executive Member for Education, the draft updated plan was published in August 2004 and those parties normally consulted when a new SOP is prepared were invited to submit comments. This consultation included all county councillors and district and borough councils. All head teachers and chairs of governors were advised that the update had been published and was available on Hantsnet and paper copies were made available on request. A closing date of 1 November 2004 was given.

4 Comments received

4.1 Only two written response was received in response to the consultation.

a. From Havant Borough Council Planning Department, containing a useful update on progress with the Borough Council's Local Plan. This has been incorporated into the text of the SOP now submitted for approval.

b. From Fareham Borough Council. This contained a request for a meeting with Members of the Borough Council to discuss the provision of primary and secondary school places to serve Whiteley. This meeting was held on 24 November 2004. Further opportunities for the Borough Council to comment will be available as part of the consultation on primary education provision in Whiteley, that is the subject of a report to the Executive Member on 9 December 2004. No changes to the text of the SOP are necessary to reflect the response from Fareham Borough.

4.2 At its meeting on 15 September 2004, the School Organisation Committee considered the draft updated plan and confirmed that the committee had no comments.

4.3 An updated version of the plan has been produced and is available on the County Council's web-site at http://www.hants.gov.uk/education/department/. In addition to the revision of information relating to the Havant area, the opportunity has been taken to correct some minor errors and to clarify items that may give rise to ambiguity. Copies of those pages where changes have been made are appended to this report, on which changes made are underlined.

5 County Council Policy Requirements

5.1 Corporate Strategy - This decision supports Aims 1 (Maximising life opportunities), 4 (Building strong and safe communities) and 5 (Improving services) of the Corporate Strategy by setting a framework against which decisions can be taken to match the supply and demand for school places.

5.2 Legal implications - Although there is no statutory requirement, an annual review of the School Organisation Plan is recommended by the Secretary of State.

5.3 Financial implications - none arising specifically from this review.

5.4 Personnel implications - none arising specifically from this review.

5.5 Equalities - the plan includes policies to promote inclusiveness and equalities in access to school provision.

5.6 Crime prevention issues - none arising specifically from this review.

Recommendation

That the Executive Member for Education be advisd to approve the School Organisation Plan 2003/04 - 2007/08 (2004 Update), as amended following consultation with schools and other interested parties.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - Background Documents

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB The list excludes:

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

TITLE

Guidance on preparing and agreeing a School Organisation Plan (DfES, May 2003)

Letter from Senior Planner, Havant Borough Council dated 14 September 2004.

Letter from Principal Planning Officer, Fareham Borough Council, dated 22 November 2004.