To approve, in principle, the acceptance of the Department for Education (DfE) funding offer and re-profiled expenditure on The Brookfield Special School project pending a decision by full council.

a)    On approval of Full Council of an in-year adjustment to the capital programme, the council accepts the Department for Education funding offer towards the programme of capital improvements to The Brookfield Special School as agreed by Cabinet on 28 April 2020 to be completed within a re-profiled budget of £5m;

b)    Authority is delegated for procurement and award of contracts for the lifecycle of the project, informed by methodology advised by the council’s Commercial Services, to the Corporate Director Children and Young People;

c)    Cabinet recommends to full Council that an in-year adjustment is made to the capital programme;

d)    Authority is delegated to the Corporate Director Children and Young People and the S151 officer to agree the final terms of the grant from the Department for Education; and

e)    When negotiations have been concluded and terms agreed, authority is delegated to the Service Director Education, Skills & Learning to take all operational decisions necessary to implement the above.

1. The cabinet could decide not to agree the use of the funds listed in the capital programme. The advantage to this would be that there would be no requirement to use capital reserves in order to provide the council’s share of the funding. The disadvantage of this decision would be that  the council would miss out on a significant DfE contribution and the very modest amount of  government grant left available and allocated to the project at Brookfield i.e. £849,000, would  only be able to realise a small percentage of the priority improvements proposed; which  include: the provision of female toilets for pupils, the upgrade of the internal stairwells to full fire  compliance, and an external fire escape to the first floor of the secondary block. It would not be possible to move the Arrow cohort from the very poor accommodation in Symonds Street into a purpose built vocational block on the Brookfield site, nor provide a sports hall, or any compliant sized classrooms for the secondary setting. It is proposed that this is not the chosen decision, as not to proceed with the full programme would impede significant improvement to the education of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) pupils offered a place at the school. A likely consequence of the lack of capital investment in Brookfield would be an  increase in the commissioning of places for Herefordshire children out of county, which would  be costly (putting the high needs funding block at risk of entering deficit), and incur greater  travel time to and from school for some Herefordshire pupils. This is not recommended.

2. The cabinet could choose not to give delegated authority to procure and award the required contracts to the Director Children and Young People following the advice of the Commercial Services team. There is no obvious advantage to this decision, and the disadvantage would be that procurement may not be completed in the most time and cost efficient or best value way. It is proposed that this is not the chosen decision, in order to enable consistency of procurement approaches, and the meeting of project deadlines. This is not recommended.

3. The cabinet may decide not to grant delegated powers for operational decisions within the lifecycle of the project to the Service Director Education, Skills and Learning as project sponsor. The advantage to this would be to impose higher levels of governance to the project gateways. The disadvantage would be to lengthen the project timeline, potentially imposing inflationary cost increases. In addition, this would negate the described role of the project sponsor and project board in the corporate project management approach. It is proposed that this is not the chosen decision, in order to take the project forward to time, and within budget. This is not recommended.