Committee : EDUCATION, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND
LIFELONG LEARNING SELECT COMMITTEE
Date : 11 NOVEMBER 2002
Title : COMMUNITY USE OF SCHOOL FACILITIES
REPORT BY THE STRATEGIC DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION
AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
1. SUMMARY / PURPOSE
At
the Select Committee planning day held in the summer term 2002 it was agreed to
discuss the community use of school facilities and invite headteachers and
governors to attend. This paper
provides background information for that discussion.
2. BACKGROUND
2.1 The
government and the Department for Education and Skills are keen to promote the
community use of school facilities and new provisions have been made within the
Education Act 2002 (which received Royal Assent in July) to define how this can
take place.
2.2 In
many island schools there has been a long history of community use of school
facilities on an informal basis and through formal dual use agreements. These include:
·
formal dual use agreements between three high schools
and the Council for leisure and recreational activity
·
a range of DfES funded community projects for summer
school activities in middle and high schools
·
several ongoing projects for out of school hours
activities funded through the New Opportunities Fund in primary, middle and
high schools.
·
a range of adult education and recreational activities
funded through the Adult and Community Learning (ACL) Fund
·
a number of adult and community initiatives developed
through the specialist schools programme in island high schools
·
a range of individual school initiatives for adult and
community learning from numerous small funding streams.
2.3 As is evident from this
brief summary there is a considerable range of activity currently taking place
but the funding for this is limited and usually of a temporary nature; making
this provision usually involves schools in considerable additional
administrative work. The benefit to the local communities is significant but
there is a cost.
3. POLICY, STRATEGIC, LEGAL AND FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
There
are two major policy initiatives in this area:
3.1 The
Local Authority has a statutory responsibility to produce an annual Adult and
Community Learning Plan which is funded through a grant from the Local Learning
and Skills Council. This plan was
approved by the Council in March and has been funded for the current year. The provision within the plan is mainly for
non-school activity with the exception of the family learning and some basic
skills activities.
3.2 The
2002 Education Act gives governing bodies the power to run community services
(Sections 27 – 28) with the aim of enabling schools to:
“be
able to provide integrated services such as health services, childcare or adult
education, working in partnership with other providers as a resource for the
whole community”.
Schools
wishing to develop services or facilities for the community are advised through
the Act to discuss proposals with the Local Authority in the first instance and
any activity is subject to a range of controls which will need to be set out in
a formal protocol which will form an additional section to the LEA’s scheme of
financial management. The LEA is
currently producing such a scheme for the new financial year.
4. CONCLUSION
Community
use of school premises and facilities provides the opportunity for schools to
become more fully integrated with their local communities and enables the
effective use of valuable public assets. With this in mind the Local Authority
encourages community involvement by accessing appropriate funding and
maintaining dual use agreements. The
next stage is to develop and implement clear protocols for the arrangements
detailed in the 2002 Education Act.
5 RECOMMENDATIONS
On
the basis of the information in this report and provisional on the outcome of
the discussion in the meeting it is recommended that:
·
the Council continue to encourage and support schools
to utilise their facilities for community use;
·
an additional section is produced for the Scheme of
Financial Management to meet the community facilities power as detailed in the
2002 Education Act.
6. BACKGROUND
PAPERS
·
Isle of Wight Adult and Community Learning Plan 2002
·
Education Act 2002
Contact
point: Tel: 823400
Strategic
Director of Education & Community Development