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ITEM EX9

EXECUTIVE – 14 OCTOBER 2003

DEVELOPING THE FOUNDATION STAGE OF LEARNING IN OXFORDSHIRE – INVESTING IN PRIMARY SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND FACILITIES

Report by the Director for Learning & Culture

Introduction and Background

  1. On 18 March, the Executive approved the introduction of a single main point of admission to primary schools for children each year in the September after their fourth birthday. The new admissions policy takes affect in September 2004. The Executive agreed that, as part of the preparation of the Council’s budget for 2004/05 and beyond, it would consider the case for additional investment partnership and quality measures to support the new admissions policy.

  2. One of the key measures that has been proposed for developing good quality learning for young children in the Foundation Stage is the establishment of medium to long term programme of investment in early years buildings and facilities in primary schools. The Executive agreed to consider a further report on this in Autumn 2003.

  3. This report outlines the strategic, educational, premises and financial issues that need to be considered in connection with establishment of an Early Years Investment Fund. It updates on the findings of survey work that has been carried out over the past two years and presents some of the key points raised by primary school heads and governors during recent consultations and briefing sessions.

    4. Strategic and Educational Issues

  4. The main factor driving the need for investment in primary school buildings and facilities is the importance of maintaining and improving quality for the youngest children in our schools. This has been given added impetus by the introduction of the Foundation Stage of Learning for children aged 3 to 5 in September 2000.

  5. A modern, ‘state of the art’ early years classroom needs to have separate, self-contained provision for Foundation Stage children as well as close organisational links with children in Key Stage One (5 to 7 years old). It needs to have its own sanitary facilities and direct access to a safe, well landscaped outdoor learning area. It needs to have a good range of educational and play equipment and adequate, well designed storage.

  6. In many of Oxfordshire’s primary schools, particularly the smallest ones, provision of this quality can only be created by substantially remodelling or extending the school. However, in some schools there are increasing possibilities for working together with a local voluntary or private sector early years provider in order to meet the needs of the youngest children. Many of these partnership possibilities have strong support from governors and from the local community.

  7. The pressure to establish partnership schemes has been given impetus by the recent huge expansion in the number of publicly funded places for three year olds. The percentage of three-year olds in Oxfordshire accessing a funded early years place has risen from just 17% in 2001 to nearly 93% in January 2003. Most of this expansion has been concentrated in the private and voluntary sectors. However, it is the County Council, which has the legal duty to ensure that there are sufficient places available within its area and to monitor and support the quality of that provision.

  8. Through the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership, the Council also has a duty to ensure the expansion of childcare places within the County. This is seen as an important way of supporting families and communities. As far as young children are concerned, there is a great deal of scope for childcare to be provided in conjunction with a part-time early education place. Indeed such a service is essential for many working parents, since a part-time early education place on its own will not meet their child’s need for full day care. With factors such as these in mind, the government has recently passed legislation to make it easier for school governors to set up and run childcare provision on school sites.

  9. Since the mid-1980s, Oxfordshire has targeted what resources it has had on high-quality schemes in the form of nursery schools and classes. This has resulted in the creation of purpose-built or adapted early years provision in about 40% of the county’s primary schools. Much of this new provision has been created in the larger primary schools in Oxfordshire’s market towns. However, the need now – and also the challenge - is to extend that investment to all primary schools in Oxfordshire, including many of the County’s smaller rural primaries

  10. All the above factors point to the need for the Council to consider a sustained programme of investment in early years and childcare facilities on primary school sites over the next five to ten years. Wherever possible, this programme should take into account the possibilities for working in partnership with private and voluntary sector providers.

    11. Premises Issues

  11. Early years provision is one of a number of key priorities in the County’s Asset Management Plan (AMP) for schools. It features in the AMP both as a national and a local priority. The AMP is currently being revised and the updated version will be presented shortly to the Executive for approval.

  12. As part of ongoing work on the AMP, Premises Development Officers are intending to include a focus on early education facilities in all future suitability surveys of primary, nursery and special school buildings in the county. This will build on previous, informal survey work. It will also provide a useful basis for assessing priorities for allocations from the proposed Early Years Investment Fund.

  13. As reported to the Executive earlier this year, previous survey work has produced an initial assessment of the extent to which primary school buildings in Oxfordshire meet the basic requirements for good quality early education. These basic requirements are as follows:

    • separate, secure teaching area for reception/Foundation Stage pupils

    • classroom which has a resource area and sink and a minimum area of 2.3m sq per child;

    • separate, secure washing and sanitary accommodation available for reception/ Foundation Stage pupils , with at least one WC and washbasin for every ten pupils;

    • separate, secure outdoor learning area available for reception/Foundation Stage pupils, with at least 9m sq per pupil.

  1. According to the initial assessment reported to The Executive on 7 January 2003, the number of primary schools which at that stage were judged to meet the basic requirements for good quality early years provision was 55 (24%). A further 56 (25%) had ‘good potential’ to meet the basic requirements, but some investment of resources was considered necessary to enable them to do this. A further 99 primary schools (44%) had ‘potential’ to meet the basic requirements, but it was judged that this would only be possible with a significant or major investment of resources. In the remaining 17 primary schools (8%), the initial assessment was that it would be difficult to meet the basic requirements for good-quality early years provision, even with a major investment of resources.

  2. In recent months, Education Officers have been updating their knowledge of all the schools concerned and revising the initial assessments reported to the Executive in January 2003. This work will form a sound basis for the suitability surveys which Premises Development officers will be carrying out in future months and years.

    3. Consultation with Headteachers, Governors and Diocesan Authorities

  3. In June 2003, the Headteachers and Chairs of Governors of all primary, nursery and special schools were sent a letter notifying them of the possibility of an Early Years Investment Fund being established from 2004/05 and asking them for:

    1. information about the premises needs of their schools;

    2. comments on the criteria which might be used to determine allocations from the Investment Fund, if it were established. The same letter was also sent to the three Diocesan Authorities with responsibility for Oxfordshire schools.

  4. There has been quite a good response to the survey from primary schools. Some of the responses received have been straightforward requests for site visits and these have been acted on in every case. There have also been some more substantive responses, most of them from small primary schools in rural areas. Several of these schools are keen to work more effectively in partnership with their local pre-school providers. However, this often requires a premises solution which will allow the two providers to set up together in good quality accommodation on the school site. A copy of these more substantive responses and of the officers’ replies is available for inspection in the Members’ Resource Centre.

  5. With regard to the priority criteria, most schools accept that they are not necessarily in the best position to comment on the priorities that should apply to the county as a whole. At the head teacher briefing sessions on the Foundation Stage in June/July 2003, a number of heads expressed the view that priority for allocations from the Investment Fund should be given to schools which had not previously benefited from investment in nursery provision. None of the respondents to the consultation letter has objected to the idea that schools should be expected to find a contribution to any approved scheme from their devolved capital funds,.

    6. Priority Criteria for Allocations from The Proposed Investment Fund

  6. It is important that allocations from the proposed Fund are governed by clear criteria. These should be part of an overall process which is both transparent and which supports primary schools in taking action to meet their own needs, as much as possible in partnership with their local communities.

  7. It is recommended that these criteria are set out as a combination of key factors which, if all of them are present in the case of a particular school, would indicate the highest priority for assistance from the Fund:

    8.  

    Proposed Early Years Investment Fund – Key Criteria

    (these are not in priority order)

    - schools which currently don’t have a nursery school or class attached

    - schools whose buildings and facilities assessed by the Council’s suitability survey as being some way short of meeting acceptable standards for good quality early learning

    - schools in areas where there are insufficient places available for 3 and 4 year olds

    - schools serving areas of high social need (i.e. in the highest 20% of wards countywide)

    - schools working closely with a private or voluntary pre-school partner

    - schools able to demonstrate that they have carried out thorough advance planning to address the buildings and facilities needs of the youngest children

    - schools where a significant proportion of the scheme costs (i.e. at least 20%) can be met either from the school’s own funds or from external sources

    - schools where other major building works are planned and where there is the opportunity to join together more than one funding stream and to minimise the overall disruption to pupils’ education

    Financial Issues

  8. As a result of the initial survey work carried out over the past two years, the overall cost of bringing all primary schools in the county up to an acceptable standard for early years provision has been estimated at £16m. This is the figure that was reported to the Executive on 7 January 2003. This figure has been calculated on a formula basis using the information gathered from primary schools at an earlier stage. Further work is now being done to refine this estimate. The outcome of this further work will be reported to the Executive as part of the discussions leading to the preparation of the County Council’s Budget and Capital Programme for 2004/05 and beyond.

  9. Given the extent of the needs identified, the Executive is advised that the most effective way of addressing this matter would be to establish an ongoing investment fund from either capital or revenue funds. Initially this would probably need to be established for at least five years. It would probably need to be sustained for a period for up to ten years in order for most of the highest priority building needs to be met. Although the fund would have only a gradual impact on the buildings shortcomings of many primary schools, it could be used in combination with other County Council budgets. It could also be used to help ‘lever in’ contributions from external sources.

  10. The size of the Fund would have to be set at a level which enables a positive impact to be made on the needs identified, but which is nevertheless affordable in the context of the County Council’s overall financial pressures. With this in mind, it is suggested that the Fund could be built up over the next five years in the following way:

    11. 2004/05 - £500k

    2005/06 - £550k

    2006/07 - £600k

    2007/08 - £650k

    2008/09 - £700k

    Cumulative Total for the first five years: £3100k

  11. As for the method of financing the Fund, there are three main options:

    1. earmark the sum required each year from the annual capital allocations for primary schools and modernisation schemes – this could provide a fairly stable source of funding over a period of five to ten years. However, as the overall planned totals are fairly modest (£3m over the period 2004 to 06) and the overall premises needs of some 230 primary schools so great, there is likely to be some difficulty in earmarking a sum of the size recommended from this source.

    2. find the sum required from unallocated capital receipts – unlike Option a), this does provide a more clearly earmarked funding stream but probably only for a limited period. For that reason, this is not necessarily the best option for a long-term programme of investment.

    3. find the sum required each year from revenue funds and ‘capitalise’ it – this option offers good prospects for a sustained long-term stream of funding for investment in primary school buildings and facilities. Once the sum has been identified and built into the base budget it does not have to ‘compete’ each year against other priorities.

    Postscript – Partnership Foundation Stage Units

  12. In December 2002, the Executive approved the introduction of the County Council’s Partnership Early Years Unit Scheme to enable the development of joint ventures with pre-school partners. In June 2003, the Review of Rents and Leases for early years provision in Oxfordshire was agreed to encourage greater involvement of voluntary providers in the scheme. The Handbook for the scheme has been revised to take account of the above Review. Following consultation with Diocesan representatives, amendments have been made to the legal agreement and these are now awaiting endorsement from the Dioceses. Amendments have also been made to include reference to the County Council’s new partnership development fund. The revised handbook also includes changes in terminology – for example the scheme is now to be known as the ‘Partnership Foundation Stage Unit’ (PFSU) Scheme.

  13. If there is no local pre-school provider with which to develop a partnership scheme, a school may wish to apply to extend its age range and develop a ‘nursery class’ (now to become known as a Foundation Stage Unit). In order for this to be approved, the County Council will need to be satisfied that there is insufficient provision in the area for three and four year olds and that the new unit would not have an adverse impact other local private, voluntary and independent sector providers. Statutory notices would need to be published for such schemes and there would need to be a positive recommendation from the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership to the School Organisation Committee. The single route FSU scheme will be financed from existing budgets and the sum for start-up funding will be brought into line with that for the PFSU scheme outlined above.

  14. Copies of the new procedure are available for inspection in the members’ resource centre.

    15. RECOMMENDATIONS

  15. In accordance with the County Council’s overall budget priority that all young children in the County should have access to good quality early years education, the Executive is RECOMMENDED to:

          1. support in principle the proposal to establish an Early Years Investment Fund for primary school buildings starting in April 2004 and extending over a period of five years in the first instance;

          2. consider this proposal further and the preferred method of financing it as part of forthcoming discussions on the Council’s Budget and Capital Programme for 2004/05 and beyond;

          3. approve subject to (a) and (b) above the high priority criteria for allocations from the Fund as set out in paragraph 19 of the report;

          4. approve the scheme for setting up new Foundation Stage Units from September 2004 as set out in paragraphs 25 to 27.

KEITH BARTLEY
Director for Learning & Culture

Background papers: Letters and email responses from schools (copies available in the Members’ Resource Centre)

Contact Officer: Rick Harmes, Head of Community Learning, tel 01865 810626

September 2003

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