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ITEM EX15

EXECUTIVE – 10 DECEMBER 2002

OUTLINE PROJECT APPRAISAL APPRAISAL NO. ED588

NAME OF SCHEME: Elms Road Nursery School, Botley; relocation to new purpose built accommodation at Botley Primary School.

START YEAR: 2003/04

BASIS OF ESTIMATE: Atkins initial budgetary assessment

  1. DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT

In November 2001 the Executive approved in principle a report outlining proposals to develop and implement early years and childcare provision within the Botley area, including the possible relocation of Elms Road Nursery School. The Executive requested Officers to undertake wider consultation and produce more detailed costed proposals. A project group consisting of representatives from Elms Road Nursery School, Botley Primary School, North Hinksey Primary School and Botley Pre-School was established to consider the options available.

Elms Road Nursery is currently housed in a HORSA building. The project will provide replacement purpose built accommodation for Elms Road Nursery School on the adjoining Botley Primary School site. A three-classroom HORSA building, used by Botley Primary School for Foundation Stage/KS1 accommodation, will also be replaced. As well as replacing a poor quality building, this is necessary to provide space for the replacement nursery school accommodation.

In summary the new accommodation will include:

Elms Road Nursery School

    • Nursery accommodation including classroom, administrative and storage facilities

    • Day-care Room

    • Parent/family Room

    • Shared outside area (Nursery, Foundation, Day-care)

Botley Primary School

    • Foundation Stage Classroom

    • 2 KS1 Classrooms and resource area

    • Shared outside area (Nursery, Foundation, Day-care)

There is also a separate pre-school on the Elms Road site, which operates in its own prefabricated, relocatable, building. The feasibility of relocating the building to North Hinksey Primary School is currently being investigated along with options for providing a Foundation Stage classroom for the school.

The cost of the project will be met from the disposal of the Elms Road Nursery School site. This will be subject to Secretary of State approval under the ‘School Playing Fields General Disposal and Change of Use Consent (No 2) 2001’ and a Schedule 8 application under the Learning and Skills Act 2000.

  1. JUSTIFICATION AND ASSESSMENT OF NEED

Early years and childcare provision in the Botley area has developed piecemeal in response to changes of government policy (nursery vouchers, changes in admission patterns and the National Childcare Strategy). The current providers include Elms Road Nursery School, Botley Primary School, Botley Pre-School and North Hinksey Primary School.

Elms Road Nursery School is a 40f.t.e. place LEA Nursery School, which has recently started offering fee-paying extended day-care places. Its capacity to deliver the foundation stage curriculum and to develop further wrap-around childcare and extended services is restricted due to the age and design of the HORSA building it is located in.

Botley Primary School is located adjacent to the nursery school site. It offers places to rising fives on a termly basis. It has an intake of approximately 45 children per year. Its reception and key stage one classrooms are located in the HORSA building.

Botley Pre-School is voluntary managed and is situated on the nursery school site. It offers foundation stage education for up to 25 f.t.e. places, funded through Government grant for 3 and 4 year olds. Some of these places are offered as fee-paying extended day-care sessions

North Hinksey Primary School is located approximately half a mile away in North Hinksey Village. The school has an intake of approximately 25 children per year. Like Botley Primary School they take rising 5 children on a termly basis during the reception year.

There is a nationally and locally perceived need to develop extended, integrated or co-located services such as wraparound childcare, extended day-care and family support alongside mainstream funded education provision. This is in accordance with the aims and objectives of the Oxfordshire Early Years Development and Childcare Plan. There is local consensus that the current situation is unsatisfactory in terms of the mixed provision, the location of the services, poor existing accommodation and limitation of development potential to meet identified needs.

The HORSA buildings to be replaced were built as temporary accommodation after the Second World War with an intended life span of 15 years. The structure of the building comprises concrete portal frames with hollow concrete block infill panels. The building has poor insulation and no damp proof course. Although some modernisation has taken place this does not compensate for the unsuitable teaching environment. The replacement of HORSA buildings is one of the top condition priorities identified in the LEA Asset Management Plan.

Replacement of these HORSA buildings will remove approximately £9,000 of repair and maintenance work identified, as part of the assessed need schedule for the school.

The Asset Management Plan Assessment in March 2000 also identified the following suitability problems that will be removed as a consequence of this project:

Elms Road Nursery

    • Insufficient staff WC facilities

    • Administrative office too small, does not comply with Workplace Regulations

Botley Primary School

    • Poor separation of vehicles/pedestrians

    • Inadequate size of car park

    • HORSA classroom 10a - its small size and design means that it has to serve as a circulation route as well as a classroom

    • HORSA classroom 11 – its small size and poor design presents supervision difficulties

All of the new teaching and non-teaching accommodation will be fully accessible for people with disabilities. This will contribute towards compliance with the requirements of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2000.

  1. OTHER OPTIONS

    2. The only other option available would be to continue to maintain the HORSA buildings at both schools. This would present the County Council with an increasing repairs and maintenance liability. The Nursery School would have to continue to operate in a building that does not meet its current and future educational requirements and inhibits the development of service provision.

  2. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS (see attached Resource Appraisal) (download as .doc file)

    1. Capital

      2. The total estimated capital cost of the project, including the relocation of the Botley Pre-School is £1,634,000, inclusive of WS Atkins professional fees. The relocation of Elms Road Nursery School and Botley Pre-School will enable the existing Elms Road site to be disposed of for residential development. It is proposed that the Capital cost of the project be met from the capital receipt that this would generate. Elms Road Nursery School and Botley Primary School will also contribute accrued Devolved Formula Capital funding towards the capital cost of the project.

      An initial valuation by WS Atkins indicates that the capital receipt generated from the disposal of the Elms Road site would be sufficient to meet the capital costs of the project. However, the Vale of White Horse District Council recently issued the First Deposit Local Plan 2011 (in November 2002), which includes revised requirements for the provision of social housing in new residential developments. Even though the local plan 2011 is at an early stage in the consultation process, affordable housing has become an important aspect of planning policy. The provision of affordable housing is likely to reduce the value of the site. To offset this it would be necessary to develop the site at a higher density than previously considered (which is in line with government objectives); also there would need to be Social Housing Grant available to contribute towards the funding of the affordable housing.

      The Elms Road site cannot be disposed of until the new accommodation has been completed. The capital receipt would therefore not be secured within the first year that costs are incurred, this would result in a cash flow problem in 2003/04. It will therefore be necessary to utilise other resources within the Capital Programme to offset this expenditure until the capital receipt is received. This could be achieved by using other planned capital receipts and/or the authority’s Annual Capital Guidelines (ACG) allocation 2003/04, although the funding level of both of these sources is as yet unconfirmed. The Detailed Project Appraisal will address the security of the funding and the ability of the Capital Programme to absorb the timing issue.

      These capital receipt and funding issues can only be addressed when more detailed work is progressed and will require a further report to the Executive.

    2. Revenue

    Revenue costs for education provision will be through Education SSA for 3 and 4 year olds, and nursery grant for any places provided by voluntary providers. New Opportunities funding is available for the revenue start up of childcare. After initial set up costs, childcare will be self-financing from parental fees and Working Families Tax Credit.

    The ongoing revenue repair & maintenance and running costs for the new accommodation will be borne by Elms Road Nursery School, through its non-delegated budget, and Botley Primary School, through the County Council’s Fair Funding mechanism. It is anticipated that energy and repair and maintenance savings will be made by the removal of the HORSA buildings at both of these schools.

  3. STAFF IMPLICATIONS

    4. There are none arising from this report.

  4. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS

The new building would be constructed in accordance with the Council’s environmental standards, which will in turn minimise energy costs for the school. This scheme is particularly helpful, as it will remove HORSA building which have poor insulation and high energy costs.

The Director of Environmental Services will be consulted on access and highway issues and any recommendations will be included within the scheme. The project will be subject to two planning applications. The County Council will be the planning authority for the proposed new buildings and will consider the environmental implications of that development. The development of the Elms Road Nursery School site will be the subject of a planning application to the Vale of White Horse District Council. The two applications will be submitted simultaneously.

ROY SMITH
Acting Chief Education Officer

CHRIS GRAY
Director for Business Support & County Treasurer

Contact Officers: Kevin Griffin, Education Officer, Premises Development, Education, Tel: (01865) 428164, Annie Davy, Head of Early Years and Childcare, Education, Tel: (01865) 815493

Date: November 2002

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