Contact: Bob Eardley, Strategic Planning Manager, 01962 846275. Email: [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 This report sets out proposed changes to the 2006/07 capital programme, and the provision of additional temporary classrooms.

1.2 The proposals in this report support Aim 1 of the Corporate Strategy (Maximising life opportunities) by proposing allocations of funding to improve the learning environments of Hampshire schools.

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

2. Amendments to the 2006/07 capital programme

Carry forward from 2005/06

2.1 A total of £18.326m of 2005/06 resources was unspent at the end of the financial year. Of this total, £17.355m (including adjustments for inflation) relates to projects which were not started and have been carried forward to the current year. The total is made up as shown in Table 1.

Table 1

	£'m
Major projects approved for deferral	17.107
Inflation on projects carried forward	0.248
Total	17.355

2.2 The remaining resources of £0.971m (£18.326m - £17.355m) are not allocated to specific projects and are available to add to the 2006/07 cash limit. However, the amount of £0.971m includes £0.354m of unspent 2005/06 General Surestart Grant vired from revenue to capital. This sum will be allocated to the contingency pending the outcome of an audit of the 2005/06 accounts; it will be added to the provision for children's centres if the accounts are approved. Also included is a sum of £0.035m for investment in ICT developments for Integrated Children's Systems, allocated by the former Social Services Department, but not spent. As these developments will in future be funded from revenue, this amount will be allocated to the appropriate revenue budget provision for this activity.

Capital receipts

2.3 Table 2 shows the capital receipts made available to Children's Services as a result of transactions during 2005/06:

Table 2

Project	Receipt £'m
Former Mayfield Infant School, Farnborough	1.215
Land at Old Milton Road, New Milton	0.100
Unused balance of capital receipt from sale of Crossways, Havant	0.010
Total	1.325

2.4 Of the £1.215m available from the former Mayfield Infant School site, £1.090m was allocated towards the cost of the replacement Pinewood Infant School, Farnborough, leaving £0.125m available for reuse. The receipt from Old Milton Road, New Milton is to be made available for providing early years facilities in the New Milton area, following a decision by the Executive Member for Policy and Resources on 14 April 2005. The amount of usable capital receipts to be added to 2006/07 resources is, therefore, £0.235m.

2.5 In total, additional unallocated resources of £1.206m are available in 2006/07, as shown in Table 3

Table 3

Resources		Expenditure
	£'m		£'m
Capital receipts	0.235	Cost of c/f schemes	17.355
Resources c/f	18.326
Totals	18.561		17.355
Available resources = £1.206m (£18.561m - £17.355m)

2.6 Taking into account changes since the 2006/07 programme was produced in January (including those proposed in this report), the revised limit for the programme is £87.136m, made up as shown in Table 4.

Table 4

	£'m
Original starts programme	62.492
Developers' contributions (added in March 2006)	0.400
DfES grants for children's centres and other early years provision	10.226
Projects carried forward (not included in original cash limit)	10.078
Cash limit carried forward	0.971
Capital receipts	0.235
Integrated Children's Systems funding to be vired to revenue	-0.035
Specialist schools funding (Cove Secondary)	0.100
Youth Capital Fund	0.468
Schools Travel Grant	0.418
Prudential borrowing	1.783
Total	87.136

3. Amendments to the 2006/07 capital programme

Funding for early years projects

3.1 On 23 March 2006 the Executive Member for Education approved a number of changes to provision for the funding of early years projects and in particular children's centres. Work is in hand on the planning and design of Phase 2 projects, but it is clear that, in spite of the additional resources identified in7 the March report, it will be very difficult to meet the anticipated costs of the 53 centres from the resources available in the current year and in 2007/08.

3.2 To optimise available funding, it is recommended that several changes are made to the 2006/07 programme. The following are proposed:

· to allocate to children's centres amounts carried forward from 2005/06 relating to early years provision. These carry forwards total £1.250m;

· use of the £0.100m capital receipt from land in New Milton;

· as children's centres are now the main form of permanent building provision for early years, it is recommended that £0.400m of the provision already made for permanent early years facilities in the current programme should be transferred to the budget for children's centres;

· as a significant number of the centres are likely to be located in schools with high numbers of surplus places, it is recommended that provision of £0.125m is transferred from the budget for the management of falling rolls to children's centres provision;

· to split the allocation (£1.718m) for providing childcare through extended schools between children's centres and other locations on a 70%/30% basis.

3.3 Resources carried forward from 2005/06 include a sum of £0.045m, which is unspent interest from a grant of £1.000m from the William Price Trust received in 2000. All grants received from the Trust must be allocated to projects in Fareham.

3.4 Work is currently in hand to convert the Oak Meadow Early Years Centre, Fareham to a children's centre, at an estimated cost of £0.350m. It would be appropriate to apply the William Price Trust funding to this project and it is recommended, therefore, that resources of £0.045m are added to the provision for children's centres in the 2006/07 programme.

3.5 Taking these proposed changes into account, the funding available to support early years projects will be as shown in Table 5 and it is recommended that these changes are approved.

Table 5

	£'m	£'m
Children's Centres
DfES allocation	7.783
DfES rural uplift allocation	0.125
DfES childcare through extended schools	1.203
2005/06 early years temporary buildings provision carried forward	0.276
2005/06 William Price Trust provision carried forward (proposed for use at Oak Meadow, Fareham)	0.045
2005/06 general early years provision carried forward	0.431
2005/06 early years sustainability capital carried forward	0.543
Capital receipt from land in New Milton	0.100
Transfer from 2006/07 provision for permanent early years facilities	0.400
Transfer from 2006/07 provision for management of falling rolls	0.125
Total children's centres		11.031
Permanent early education facilities		0.100
Temporary early education facilities		0.300
DfES childcare through extended schools (balance of provision not made through children's centres)		0.515
Sustainability capital (for private provider projects)		0.600
Total		12.546

Beaulieu Primary School

3.6 There is provision of £0.190m in the 2006/07 capital programme for a major project to at Beaulieu Primary School. This was planned as the first instalment of funding to carry out a comprehensive improvement project spanning two financial years. Subsequent design and procurement work by the Director of Property, Business and Regulatory Services has determined that it would be more cost effective to undertake this project in one rather than two stages. Contributions are also being made by Policy and Resources (£0.055m) and the school (£0.091m). The additional cost of the work proposed is £0.218m and this could be met from the current year's capital programme contingency, with a consequent saving of resources in 2007/08. On that basis, it is recommended that provision for work at Beaulieu Primary School is increased from £0.190m to £0.408m and the scheme is added to the 2006/07 capital programme as a major project.

Woodlands Education Centre

3.7 Following a major fire at the Woodlands Education Centre, Cowplain in 2002, the centre was relocated to temporary buildings on the site. The Executive Member for Education on 19 January 2006 approved a scheme for the permanent relocation of the Centre to the site of the former Park House Primary School, Havant., at an estimated cost of £4.750m (inclusive of fees and an allocation for furniture and equipment). Since then further detailed design work has been undertaken on this scheme and the current revised cost estimate is £5.733m.

3.8 The reasons for the cost increase are set out below:

· the project was on hold for some considerable time while planning permission was secured for disposal sites in the area which were the principal funding streams for this project. Once design work restarted, the brief and scope of works were revisited and consequently there have been some unavoidable increased costs as a result of inflation, refinement of the building layout and, more significantly, the introduction in April 2006 of the revised Building Regulations which impose increased requirements on the thermal efficiency of the building envelope and the need to incorporate energy from `renewable' sources. The capital programme allowance approved in January 2006 did not take account of these factors and was based on historic estimates of an earlier design proposal.

· this project is being procured through a Major Framework Contractor in conjunction with the replacement Sundridge BESD School. This sister project is programmed to run in advance of the Woodlands project and both projects are being procured together to enable economies of scale and common supply chains to be used to obtain best value for money. Sub-contractor prices were recently received for the BESD project and work is due to commence on site imminently. The returned prices gave the opportunity to benchmark current tendered rates and the cost estimates for the Woodlands project have been adjusted accordingly to reflect market conditions.

· the revised cost estimate is within the funding available and an overall reconciliation has been undertaken, taking into account the Sundridge project. These projects need to be reviewed together in cost and funding terms and are being managed on that basis.

3.9 A report will be submitted to the Executive Member for Policy and Resources in the autumn seeking authority for prudential borrowing to cover the costs of this project to be met from future capital receipts.

Schools' Sustainable Travel Grant allocations

3.10 The DfES has made a third round of capital allocations to a number of schools which have School Travel Plans (STPs) authorised and in place by 31 March 2006. The grant is intended to help schools to support sustainable travel to school and DfES expects the funding to be spent on measures identified in their STPs, such as secure cycle parking, lockers and bus bays. The grant is payable at the following rates:

· Primary schools: £3,750 per school, plus £5 per pupil

· Secondary schools: £5,000 per school, plus £5 per pupil

3.11 Grant is paid as an addition to schools' devolved capital and the amount allocated to Hampshire in 2006/07 is £0.418m and it is recommended that this sum is added to resources for schools' devolved capital allocations for 2006/07.

Youth Capital Fund

3.13 The Government has allocated to local authorities a Youth Capital Fund to invest in improving youth facilities. The fund is confirmed for the financial years 2006/07 and 2007/08. The allocation to the County Council for each of the two years is £0.468m. The guidance allows for a carry over of 40% into the second financial year if required.

Cove School, Farnborough - specialist status

3.14 Cove School, Farnborough has received an allocation of £0.100m from the DfES, having received specialist status as a Science school. It is recommended that resources of £0.100m are added to the 2006/07 programme for a project to be determined.

2006/07 capital programme

3.15 A revised 2006/07 capital programme report is attached at Appendix 1 and is recommended for approval.

4. Temporary classrooms

Planning Renewal - The Vyne Community School, Basingstoke

4.1 This school currently has 738 pupils on roll and a net capacity of 750. The school's published admission number is 150. In September 2006 the school will admit 150 pupils and was oversubscribed on first choice applications by 12. Independent appeals are already scheduled and the number on roll for September could therefore grow above the current figure of 751. The school has been over-subscribed for the past five years and will have 36 more pupils on roll in September 2006 than it had when the temporary accommodation was placed on site for September 2004.

4.2 The school provides 12 resourced spaces for pupils who have language impairment and also has 25% of its pupils on the SEN audit. To reflect the high level of support that a significant number of pupils need, the school organises into six teaching groups in the majority of the curriculum to provide small class sizes. The school suffers from under-provision in general teaching spaces to support such organisation and its construction does not allow the re-arrangements of spaces without significant building work.

4.3 The Governors are planning to carry out internal building work using the school's capital budget, to ensure that no temporary accommodation is needed on the site beyond the next academic year. By September 2007 all lessons should be able to take place within the existing building.

4.4 In order to reduce the number of pupils in the Vyne's feeder schools, Merton Junior school will become a feeder school to John Hunt of Everest from September 2006. Even so The Vyne received 17 first choice applications from Merton Junior school for admission in 2006.

4.5 To meet the immediate need, it is recommended that a double temporary classroom continues to be provided until August 2007 to provide the school with accommodation to enable it to organise in teaching groups that reflect pupil numbers and pupils' educational needs. Providing temporary accommodation until that date will enable the changes in feeder schools to become embedded and for the internal alterations to be completed. By this time John Hunt of Everest School should be established in its new buildings.

5. County Council Policy Requirements

5.1 Legal implications - The proposals support the County Council's statutory duty to provide school places and comply with central government accommodation requirements and guidance.

5.2 Financial implications - These are set out in the report.

5.3. Personnel implications - None directly arising from this report.

5.4 Community cohesion, inclusiveness and partnership working - Most of the capital projects proposed in this report support these aims.

5.5 Crime prevention issues - None directly arising from this report.

Recommendations

1. That the revised 2006/07 capital programme set out in Appendix 1 be approved together with the following specific variations:

(a) the addition of resources totalling £22.461m;

(b) that a major project be added to the 2006/07 capital programme for major improvements to Beaulieu Primary School, at an estimated cost of £0.408m, replacing minor works provision of £0190m for a smaller scheme;

(c) the addition of resources totalling £0.418m for Sustainable Travel Grant allocations, funded from additional Government grant;

(d) the addition of resources of £0.468m from the Youth Capital Fund;

(f) the addition of resources of £0.100m to the provision for secondary school improvements for a grant allocation for specialist school status to Cove Secondary School, Farnborough.

2. That the application for planning permission for a temporary classroom at The Vyne Community School, Basingstoke be approved until 31 August 2007.

Section 100D - Local Government Act 1972 - Background papers

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.

None.

Appendix 1 - Revised capital programme 2006/07