The Committee gave consideration to a report of the Director of Education which provided a detailed description of the approach to strategic school place planning in Trafford to ensure there continued to be sufficient school places for current and future children living in the Borough. 

The Director of Education attended the meeting accompanied by the Schools’ Capital Project Manager and the Executive Member for Children’s Service to present the information and address the questions of the Committee. Unfortunately, the Admission Lead could not take part to the meeting this evening and any specific questions about admissions for which an answer could not be provided at the meeting, would be taken to the Admission Lead and an answer would be given in due course.

The Director of Education informed that, currently, there were just under 42,300 pupils in Trafford schools. These were spread across 65 primary schools, 19 secondary schools, 7 special schools and 2 alternative provisions and 94% of educational settings in Trafford were rated “good or outstanding” by the OFSTED (Office for Standards in Education). These positive rates played a role in the fact that most of the schools in Trafford were fully subscribed.

The Director of Education outlined the forecast methodology to plan for school places. There were primary and secondary planning areas and data was considered from a number of different sources such as General Practitioners, school census, housing development, coordinated admissions and historic cohort data which provided trends and patters occurred in the last years.

The Director of Education informed the Committee that accurate forecasts for school places were essential in determining the Basic Need Grant Allocation and how this was spent. The Director outlined how the Developer Contribution would be utilised to fund new school places and how the special provision fund to make capital investment for provision for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) was utilised. The Director also informed of the current position with regard to Early Years and the fact that there were more children who resided outside Trafford who attended Trafford’s Early Years places than Trafford’s children who attended Early Years settings out of the Borough. 

Members thanked officers for the detailed report on the demand for school places and the methodology adopted to meet the demand. Members sought clarification on the number of new “free” school places and those under Local Authority’s control over the last three years and what proportion was dedicated to provision for vulnerable children. Members also sought to gather an understanding of how many of the additional 520 new secondary school places for 2021/22 were for children who lived in Trafford and how many for children who resided elsewhere. Members enquired about how primary and secondary school places were planned for in relation to new housing developments.

Officers explained that the complexity of the grammar school system in Trafford made the demand for school places more challenging as it included pupils who resided in other areas. Constant liaising between Council’s departments such as School Places and Development Control, the introduction of the Infrastructure Levy and resources such as the “Section 106 Officer” would assist in obtaining contributions from developers and details were provided about places for primary schools in Sale. The discourse about planning for future demand in relation to future, possible housing developments, took place at strategic board level.

RESOLVED: -

1.    That the content of the report be noted;

2.    That further information concerning school places be provided to members in due course.