Issue - meetings

Cabinet Member: Education

Forward Plan Ref: 2012/105

Contact: Allyson Milward, Academies Manager Tel: (01865) 816447

Report by Director for Children’s Services (CA7).

In the next five years the authority is likely to have to procure a number of new schools due to planned housing growth.  The Education Act 2011 determined that all new schools should be academies or Free schools unless no sponsor can be found by the authority or DfE.  Existing legislation which deals with the creation of new maintained schools is no longer applicable to the Authority's decision making process.  The authority has embraced the idea of academies and seeks to identify the best provision it can for school places in Oxfordshire.

The purpose of this report is to set out procedures which will allow the authority to identify preferred providers, by agreement with the Secretary of State, to open new academies or free schools for the benefit of local communities.  The DfE has recently issued guidance on procedures for local authorities in this matter and the proposed system to be used by the County Council based upon this guidance, along with the outcome of consultation with interested parties, is set out in the report. 

Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to approve the process to identify academy and free school providers for new schools in Oxfordshire. 

Cabinet considered a report that set out procedures to allow the authority to identify preferred providers, by agreement with the Secretary of State, to open new academies or free schools for the benefit of local communities in line with The Education Act 2011 which had determined that all new schools should be academies or Free schools unless no sponsor could be found by the authority or Department for Education (DfE). The DfE has recently issued guidance on procedures for local authorities in this matter and the proposed system to be used by the County Council based upon this guidance, along with the outcome of consultation with interested parties, was set out in the report. 

RESOLVED:             to approve the process to identify academy and free school providers for new schools in Oxfordshire.