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.

No interests were declared.

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 consider the adoption of a new Constitution for the Cheshire East Schools Forum.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services considered a new Constitution for the Cheshire East Schools Forum.

The Council was required to review the Constitution as a consequence of the issuing of new statutory guidance and regulations. In consultation with existing Forum members and associated stakeholder groups, the opportunity had also been taken to review membership, whilst reducing the overall size of the Forum, and to clarify Forum procedures and terms of reference. All existing stakeholder groups had retained representation on the Forum. In the light of an increase in the number of Academies in the Borough, it was proposed that their representation be increased.

RESOLVED

That the revised Schools Forum Constitution be approved and be effective from 1^st December 2011.

To seek approval to consult on the proposed expansion of Oakefield Primary & Nursery School, Crewe, from the current Published Admission Number (PAN) of 45 (1.5 form entry (FE)) to a PAN of 60 (2 FE) with effect from September 2012.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services considered a proposal to consult on the proposed expansion of Oakefield Primary and Nursery School, Crewe.

The Crewe Local Area Partnership (LAP) had 21 primary schools and 5 secondary schools covering the areas of Crewe, Nantwich, Sandbach, and Shavington. The total primary school capacity across this area was 7,002 pupil places; 14 of these primary schools were located within Crewe town, providing 4,925 pupil places for this area.

The 14 Crewe town primary schools currently provided a total of 708 reception places. However, for Reception 2011 pupils the Authority faced a shortfall and to date had received and placed 750 applications, resulting in several schools admitting over their published admission number (PAN) to accommodate these additional pupils.

Pupil forecasts for Crewe indicated that there would be a shortfall of places with only 1% and 2% vacancies across all 14 schools by 2015 and 2016. This gave an average number of vacancies per school of fewer than one place per year group for 2016.

The authority was therefore proposing some long term measures, including the proposed expansion of Oakefield Primary & Nursery School. The Authority had already decided to expand the nearby Beechwood Primary School to respond to this shortfall in places.

In making this recommendation, the authority had considered a number of issues, including the number of pupils in each school’s catchment area, the number of first preferences received for each school, the current size of the school together with the school sites and those suitable for expansion and the likely costs of extension. Suitable schools also needed to be central to the area of Crewe where the extra places were required.

The decision on the proposal would be subject to the completion of an Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) which would be presented to the Portfolio Holder prior to any decision.

RESOLVED

That the Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services gives approval to commence statutory consultation on the expansion of Oakefield Primary and Nursery School, Crewe from 1.5FE to 2FE and thus provide an additional 105 school places, with a proposed implementation date of September 2012.