Children, Families, Learning & Leisure Cabinet Member – Minutes – 11 February 2019

22 (22) HEALTHLY PUPILS CAPITAL GRANT FUNDING – The Director: Operations submitted a report updating the Cabinet Member on bids received from schools for capital funding support for projects to improve children’s physical and mental health, and seeking approval for funding allocations to individual schools.

The Healthy Pupils Capital Fund (HPCF) had been established from revenue generated from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy.  Each council had been allocated a capital grant for community and voluntary controlled schools.  Academies were able to access the funds through their responsible body or via a Capital Investment Fund bid.  Voluntary Aided schools received the funding through the Locally Controlled Voluntary Aided Programme.

The fund was intended to improve children and young people’s physical and mental health by improving and increasing availability to facilities for physical activity, healthy eating, mental health and wellbeing and medical conditions. The HPCF could be used to complement existing or new funding opportunities.

Schools and academies were invited to submit a short bid form outlining the scope of the project for which they were seeking support funding and setting out the impact it would have.  Schools needed to demonstrate how the investment would be sustainable.  In particular, the staffing and future maintenance costs of facilities.  Bids detailed the number and characteristics of pupils who would benefit from the investment.

The report gave details of bids received to support a number of projects.

A panel of professional officers assessed the bids received against the purpose of the funding: improving children’s physical and mental health. In addition, consideration was given to the impact the project would have for children, if the project was deemed capital, the facilities already available at the school, deliverability of the project and the condition of the asset that the investment was for. Based on the above, a number of bids were recommended for approval.

Resolved – That funding allocations to the following schools and academies to enable them to move forward with projects to improve children’s physical and mental health, be approved:

 

Name of Establishment Project Allocation
Bottesford Junior School Outdoor gym equipment £9000
Crosby Primary Inclusion outdoor environment £9000
Enderby Road Infants First aid room £8000
Goxhill Primary Trim trail £9000
Haxey Primary KS1 outdoor provision £6400
John Harrison Primary Playground/ bike shed improvements £4600
Leys Farm Junior Outdoor gym equipment £5300
Priory Lane Community School Garden area for quiet space £5500
Scunthorpe CE Primary Green space/ growing area and sensory garden £9000
St Barnabas Primary Nurture space £6400
The Grange Primary KS2 playground development £9000
Winterton Infants Climbing Wall £9000
Baysgarth Outdoor gym equipment £9000
Fred Gough Quiet space for nurture £8900
St Hugh’s Sunken trampoline and ICT engagement system £9000

 

23 (23) MAINSTREAM INCLUSION ‘SEND’ CAPITAL FUNDING – The Director: Operations submitted a report updating the Cabinet Member on bids received from schools and academies for capital funding support for projects to enable children and young people with Special Education Needs and Disabilities to recognise and achieve their full potential, and seeking approval for funding allocations to individual schools and academies.

In response to the feedback from the ‘Big Meet 2017’, the Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Children, Learning and Families wrote to all schools advising them of the opportunity to bid for a share of £150,000 of capital funding made available to support Mainstream Inclusion SEND (Special Education Needs and Disabilities).  An additional £100,000 had been made available in 2018/19 for the same purpose.

The aim was to support schools with funding to go beyond reasonable adjustments in enabling children and young people with SEND to recognise and achieve their full potential. Schools and academies were invited to submit a short bid form outlining the scope of the project for which they were seeking support funding and setting out the impact it would have.

The report gave details of bids received to support a number of projects.

A panel of professional officers assessed the bids received against the purpose of the funding.  In addition, consideration was given to the impact the project would have for children, the deliverability of the project and the condition of the asset that the investment was for. Based on the above, a number of bids were recommended for approval.

Resolved – That funding allocations to the following schools and academies to enable them to move forward with projects aimed at enabling children and young people with SEND to recognise and achieve their full potential, be approved:

 

Name of establishment Allocation
Bottesford Infants £9,000
Frodingham Infants £9,000
Bottesford Junior £9,000
Broughton Primary £4,000
Eastoft Primary £6,000
Outwood Brumby £9,000
Haxey Primary £9,000
St Martin’s Primary £9,000
Sir John Nelthorpe £9,000
Winterton Infants £9,000
St Bernadette’s Primary £9,000
Lincoln Gardens Primary £9,000

 

24 (24) EARLY YEARS DEDICATED SCHOOLS GRANT 2019/20 – The Directors: Governance and Partnerships and Learning, Skills and Culture submitted a joint report seeking consideration of the proposed unit values for the 2019/20 funding formula for providers of Early Education to two, three and four year olds.

The council had a statutory duty to provide up to a maximum of 15 hours funded early education for 38 weeks of the year for all three and four-year olds in North Lincolnshire, and an additional extended 15 hours for children of working parents that met an eligibility criteria.

Two-year olds could claim up to 15 funded hours of early education for 38 weeks of the year where their family circumstances made them eligible.  To meet the criteria families must be eligible for free school meals or be in receipt of tax credits and have an annual income of under £16,190 before tax.  Or where a child was currently or previously looked after by a council.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency published operational guidance annually, outlining the arrangements to help councils and their Schools Forums plan the local implementation of the early year’s national funding formula for the forthcoming financial year.

The council must plan to spend at least 95 per cent of three and four-year old funding on the delivery of funding entitlements.  The centrally retained funding in North Lincolnshire was 4.98 per cent of the funding allocation ensuring a high proportion of funding available locally to fund providers of the funded places.

Councils determined their own local formula that met the requirements of statutory guidance in consultation with the Schools Forum.  Early years’ providers received funding based on participation of individual children each term.

Resolved – That the use of the formula factors and values, as set out in paragraph 3.2 of the report, be approved.