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

1 Summary

1.1 It is recommended that a revision of the current School Organisation Plan be published, for consultation with schools and other interested parties, with a view to the reviewed plan being adopted in the autumn of 2005.

2 School Organisation Plan

2.1 It was a requirement of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 that all local education authorities should produce a School Organisation Plan (SOP). The last full plan, covering the period 2003/04 to 2007/08 was approved by the School Organisation Committee on 16 December 2003 and a non-statutory revision was approved by the Executive Member for Education on 9 December 2004.

2.2 The requirement to publish a SOP was repealed with effect from 1 March 2005, in the light of the duty under the Children Act 2004 for the publication of a Children and Young People's Plan (CYPP).

2.3 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. As it is unlikely that the CYPP will contain the level of detail set out in the SOP, it would be prudent to publish a revision of the SOP to take account of the latest data and projections.

3 2005 Revision

3.1 The 2004 revision of the SOP was approved by the Executive Member for Education on 9 December 2004, following consultation with schools, district councils and other interested parties. Copies of the approved plan were circulated to all county councillors and members of the Education Policy Review Committee, district councils and adjoining LEAs. Headteachers 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 to cover the period 2004/05 to 2009/10.. No alterations need to be made to the policy sections. A copy will be available by the date of this Executive Member Decision Day.

3.3 There is no longer a statutory requirement for the School Organisation Committee to take part in the revision of a plan and that body does not formally need to have regard to the plan when making decisions on statutory proposals for changes to the organisation of individual schools. Nevertheless, it would assist the LEA to have comments from members of the SOC.

3.4 In the light of this, it is proposed that the draft revised plan should be published for consultation with interested parties, including headteachers and governing bodies, members of the School Organisation Committee, all county councillors and district and borough councils. These comments would then be reported to the Education Policy Review Committee and Executive Member for Education in October 2005, so that the revised plan can be formally adopted by the County Council.

4 Legal implications

4.1 None

5 Financial implications

5.1 None

6 Personnel implications

6.1 None

7 Impact assessment

7.1 Race and equality impact assessment has been considered in the development of this report and no adverse impact has been identified.

8 Crime prevention issues

8.1 None

9 Views of Local County Councillors

9.1 The views of County Councillors will be sought as part of the consultation.

Recommendations

1. That a Draft School Organisation Plan (2005 Revision) be published for consultation with schools and other interested parties.

2. That the result of these consultations be reported to the Education Policy Review Committee and Executive Member in October 2005.

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)