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Agenda item

SOP - Update Report - to follow

To carry out pre-decision and policy review scrutiny prior to its consideration by Cabinet.

Minutes:

The Chairperson advised that this report provides Committee with an opportunity to undertake per-decision scrutiny of the Schools Organisational Programme Update prior to Cabinet’s consideration of the report on 19th of March.

 

The Chairperson welcomed Cllr Sarah Merry Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Education, Employment and Skills to the meeting and invited her to make a statement.

 

Cllr Merry explained that this was an overview of SOP at the present time.  Members were reminded of the work undertaken since 2012.  Moving forward there would be challenges in the future build programme such as demographic changes, climate emergency and increase in Welsh medium education among others.  Members were asked to note the recommendation to establish/consolidate the Director of SOP as a permanent post, with the delegation to Director of ELL to move on with the programme.  Nick Batchelor explained that this had not been in the report included in Members’ report pack.

 

The Chairperson welcomed Nick Batchelar, Director of Education and Lifelong Learning and Richard Portas Programme Director to present the report to the Committee.

 

The Chairperson invited questions and comments from Members;

 

Members asked about schools that were in the category ‘Urgent Need’ and asked what was the process going forward to address these.  The Cabinet Member advised that they look initially at the removal of decondition school buildings and then look at sufficiency of places; any schools left then go to Band C, the Welsh Government assess the condition and band them.

 

Members referred to the £25million of Capital Receipts and asked about plans in case the full amount is not raised.  The Director stated this was an important area of the financing of the programme; with a programme of this size lots of things change and that was one reason for the update report.  There are variables such as construction costs and interest, however there were no alarm bells with regard to capital receipt at the moment.

 

Members asked if there were enough staff and enough expertise to deliver the programme.  The Director explained that the report to Cabinet entitled Capacity and Governance in 2018 looked at exit interviews and also the role of the Programme Director.  The Programme director has been appointed to and he has reshaped roles and teams in education and economic development to develop a corporate landlord approach for the estate.  There are some vacancies but the Director is confident the capacity is there.

 

Members asked for more information about the MIM model.  It was explained that the Council is a partner in the scheme, potentially manageability could be increased and risks may need to be managed more.  The Cabinet Member said she had been concerned about future flexibility and responsiveness to priorities; this may be more difficult to do in the MIM model with regards to community use etc.

 

Members referred to LDP schools and asked about a masterplan to look at catchments, dual schemes, etc and how it all links together.  The Cabinet Member stated this was a difficult question and a complication of how developments happen and the s106 agreements.  It was important not to destabilise existing schools close to developments with spaces; the medium also needs to be considered as does parental preference, so it was all open to flexibility and no solid masterplan as such.  The Director added that with LDP schools, it was impossible to know who would move to the developments and what their preferences would be.

 

Members referred to population projections and asked if there were any concerns or whether planning was for continual growth in Cardiff.  The Cabinet Members said there were still some deep dives needed and there would be further questions on education, LDP etc. The projection was for growth in Cardiff but slower, the rest of Wales projects a decrease in population.

 

AGREED – That the Chairperson writes to the Cabinet Member on behalf of the Committee expressing their comments and observations discussed during the Way Forward.

 

Supporting documents:

 

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