Agenda and minutes

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any personal and/or prejudicial interests in any item on the agenda.

Councillor D Neilson declared a personal interest in relation to an item on proposed changes to school admission arrangements as the Chairman of the Governors of Puss Bank School.

In accordance with Procedure Rules Nos.11 and 35 a period of 10 minutes is allocated for members of the public to address the meeting on any matter relevant to the work of the meeting. Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes but the Chairman or person presiding will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned where there are a number of speakers. Members of the public are not required to give notice to use this facility. However, as a matter of courtesy, a period of 24 hours’ notice is encouraged.

Members of the public wishing to ask a question at the meeting should provide at least three clear working days’ notice in writing and should include the question with that notice. This will enable an informed answer to be given.

There were no members of the public present.

To seek approval to publish statutory notices on the proposed expansion of Oakefield Primary and Nursery School, Crewe.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services considered a proposal to publish statutory notices on the proposed expansion of Oakefield

Primary and Nursery School, Crewe.

Following the decision of the Cabinet Member on 14 November 2011, formal consultation on the proposed expansion of Oakefield Primary & Nursery School was undertaken between 22^nd November 2011 and 20^th December 2011.

The Cabinet Member had taken into account the views expressed during the consultation in reaching the decision. Responses to the formal consultation had been summarised in the report and copies of the submissions received had been made available to the Cabinet Member.

The decision would enable the Local Authority to comply with its statutory duty to publish notices on a school closure.

The advice of the Council’s Legal and Finance Officers had been taken into account in producing the report presented to Cabinet.

RESOLVED

That the Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services authorises Officers to publish a notice of the Council’s plans to expand Oakefield Primary & Nursery School, Crewe from 315 to 420 places with effect from September 2012.

To consider proposed changes to the admission arrangements and Local Authority co-ordinated scheme to apply for 2013 and subsequent years, subject to any further review, and to seek permission to consult.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services considered a proposal to consult on proposed changes to the admission arrangements and Local Authority co-ordinated scheme to apply for 2013 and subsequent years.

Following consultation by Government on a revised School Admissions Code for 2012, a new ‘draft’ code had been published containing new requirements in relation to admission arrangements and the removal of the statutory requirement on local authorities to include within their scheme the coordination of applications received ‘in year’.  The Codes and draft regulations would be laid before Parliament in December, in order to come into force in February 2012. In order to ensure compliance, changes were proposed ahead of a final version of the revised Code, in order that consultation could commence in line with statutory consultation duties.

Admission Arrangements

The Local Authority, as admission authority for its community and voluntary controlled schools, had a statutory duty to consult with all other admission authorities within its relevant area, the Admission Forum, admission authorities in neighbouring local authority areas, relevant parents and other groups with an interest in the local area (for example, community groups) on any proposed changes to its admission arrangements, including changes to admission numbers and oversubscription criteria.

Consultation must last for a minimum of 8 weeks and therefore, subject to approval to commence this process, consultation will start on 1 January 2012 and end on 1 March 2012.

Coordination Scheme

Local authorities must formulate schemes by 1 January in the determination year, which set out how applications would be processed and the arrangements for exchanging information with other admission authorities to ensure, as far as possible, that a single offer of a school place was made to its residents.  If a local authority did not notify the Secretary of State by 15 April in the determination year that a scheme had been adopted for the following academic year, the Secretary of State could impose a scheme.

The Scheme, once determined, would apply to applications for places in maintained schools and Academies received for the relevant age group i.e. at the normal point of entry into reception at 4+ and secondary transfer at 11+ for the school year 2013-14 and to applications received ‘in year’ (i.e. those received after the first day of the school year into the relevant age group or into any other year group). The scheme would apply to subsequent years, subject to any review.  The recommendation would enable the Local Authority to meet its statutory duty to formulate a scheme by 1 January in the determination year (2012) and to consult on any changes proposed.

Full details about the proposed changes were presented to the Admissions Forum on 24 November and advice received was included in the report to the Cabinet Member.

Councillor D Neilson attended the meeting as the local ward councillor for Puss Bank School, Macclesfield. He discussed the background to the Governing Body’s application to increase its published admissions number (PAN) from 45  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.