Agenda item

Considered –

A report on schools, educational achievement and finance.

Sue Turley, Strategic Planning Officer in Education and Skills, presented the report the key points of which are as summarised below:

·         The academy conversion rate for schools in the area is lower than that for the county as a whole

·         School OFSTED judgements for both primary and secondary schools are better than the North Yorkshire average

·         Attainment data for 2020 and 2021 has been impacted by covid-19 and the cancellation of exams and use of teacher assessments

·         There are low numbers of children not in education, employment of training

·         The number of suspensions from school in the area is lower than expected (13%) based upon the share of the school population (17.4%)

·         There are 615 children in the area who have an Education Health and Care Plan in place

·         There are 1,556 children in the area who are recorded as receiving Special Education Needs (SEN) support

·         School budgets have experienced significant cost pressures during 2022/23.  The pressures include: pay awards; energy inflation; overall inflation; covid recovery; and increasing numbers of SEN children

·         It is anticipated that schools will see a deterioration in their financial position over 2022/23

·         Funding for secondary schools per pupil is currently £5,713 compared to the national average of £6,213

·         School sustainability is influenced by falling pupil rolls, school standards and finances

·         Recent school closures in the area have been Clapham CE VC Primary School and Kell Bank CE VC Primary School

·         There is significant housing development planned in across the area.  In some places school capacity will be increased, such as Ripon, and in other areas there is sufficient spare capacity in place, such as Skipton.

There followed a discussion the key points of which are as summarised below:

·         SEND funding is not sufficient to meet current levels of need in the county.  The special school funding levels were determined by the DfE in 2015 and have not been reviewed since

·         Most special schools in the county are small and so do not benefit from economies of scale.  Additional support is being provided to help with financial management

·         The local councillor must be engaged at the earliest possible opportunity where a school in their division is at risk of being closed

·         It would be helpful to have data on the availability of school places broken down by school

·         Most school closures happen very quickly and do so due to falling numbers of pupils on the school roll

·         The Pupil Referral Model and strategy was amended in 2020 to focus upon children at risk of permanent exclusion.  This means that work is done with at risk children whilst they are still at school

·         School performance has slipped over the past 10 years in the area

·         Concerns raised that the number of school places in the area, particularly around Skipton, and whether there will be the capacity to meet the increased demand resulting from planned housing building

·         Concerns that some schools are being pushed into academisation when there may be other alternatives to explore

·         Generally, councillors do not need a DBS check to undertake their duties

·         The figures provided in Appendix 1 regarding planning applications for house building and the associated forecast surplus or shortfall in school places do not reflect the scale of the planning applications that are currently going through Craven DC and Harrogate BC. 

Resolved -

a)    That an updated report is brought back to the committee in December 2023

b)    That further information is provided to the committee as to how the number of additional school places needed is calculated when new houses are being built

c)    That local councillors are given early warning when a school in their division is experiencing difficulties with performance, finance or the numbers of children in the school roll.