Issue - meetings

The Portfolio Holder introduced a report asking Members to consider the Council’s strategy to meet the forecast pupil numbers in Primary and Secondary schools to 20131 and to endorse the recommendations of the School Places Working Party.

The Local Authority had statutory responsibility for ensuring that there were sufficient school places to meet demand in the Borough.  The most immediate issue facing the Authority over recent years had been the significant increase in the need for primary school places, with reception intake increasing from approximately 3,400 in 2009 to approximately 4,050 in 2015.

The Council’s strategy to meet the additional demand was a combination of bulge classes, permanent expansion of existing schools and new free schools.  This provided the necessary flexibility to ensure that the demand could be met whilst remaining sensitive to the preferences expressed by parents.

The Portfolio Holder informed the Committee that ward packs, containing a detailed breakdown of the information, had been produced and would be distributed to ward councillors and members that there governors in specific areas.

The Chairman of the School Places Working Group stressed the importance of Councillors taking a Borough-wide view when considering education issues rather than a more local ward-level view.  The need to ensure that there were sufficient school places for Bromley children was of paramount importance and the pressures around school places was only going to worsen, it was a problem that was not going away.

The Chairman stressed that the reality was that the population of London was growing and the local authority needed to have sustainable plans in place to meet its statutory responsibilities.

RESOLVED: that the Portfolio Holder be recommended to

i)   Note the projections for primary and secondary need;

  ii)  Agree a margin of 5% above the Greater London Authority projection for primary and secondary place planning to provide for local variations in need and to meet parental preferences;

  iii)   Agree that discussions be undertaken with primary schools identified for expansion with a view to reporting the outcome to a future meeting of Education PDS Committee;

  iv)   Agree that feasibility studies be undertaken in consultation with identified primary schools to assess the scope and cost of school enlargement;

  v)   Agree that where primary school expansion is agreed, implementation be funded through the Education Capital Programme, subject to the availability of funds;

  vi)  Agree that proposals for the expansion of existing secondary schools be brought forward to the Executive for approval.

  viii)  Agree that local Councillors be involved with any planning proposals for the expansion or establishment of schools at the pre-planning application stage.