Children, Families & Learning Cabinet Member – Minutes – 28 September 2016

14  (14) SCHOOL ORGANISATION NEEDS ASSESSMENT – The Director of People submitted a report seeking approval to publish the revised School Organisation Needs Assessment.

The council published the first School Organisational Needs Assessment (SONA) in May 2014.  The revised SONA had been updated to include the latest pupil forecasts.

The aim of the SONA was to help the council and the wider community to understand the future demand for mainstream school places.  The document included comprehensive information on pupil demographics and identified the factors that may have an impact on the supply and demand of school places.

The data within the document was based on the latest 2016 projections and took into account various data-sets including current pupil populations, birth data, pupil yield from housing developments and net migration.

The council had a statutory duty to provide a sufficient number of school places in order to meet local demand. The needs assessment provided robust data to help identify where basic need investment was required.  This helped the council to achieve its strategic aim for all children and young people to have access to a good quality school place within their catchment area.

Resolved – (a) That the publication of the School Organisation Needs Assessment be approved; (b) that the action plans at Part 4 of the document be endorsed, and (c) that the Assistant Director – Prevention and Commissioning be authorised to approve additional feasibility studies based on the most recent information.