To approve the proposed expenditure of capital grants for school buildings maintenance works.

The cabinet member commissioning, procurement and assets introduced the item. She explained that it was essential that works were planned maintenance rather than remedial work as reactive measures usually costed more and meant that children were not learning in good quality buildings. It was imperative to build back better and that commissioning for works took place in ways that did not exclude local tradespeople.

The cabinet member children and families supported the proposals and stressed the importance for children and staff of maintaining school buildings and the impact on reducing carbon emissions and improving air quality. Investment would save costs in the future.

The head of educational development explained that the report sought approval for a schedule of maintenance works for financial years 2021/22 and 2022/23. As the schedule was based on a projected capital grant it was recommended that the assistant director educational development and skills be given delegated authority to adjust the final programme of works to fit the grant actually received. The grant from government was ring fenced for schools maintenance but the council could choose to supplement this.

The sufficiency planning and capital investment manager explained the process for producing the priority list of works based on condition surveys. The overall rating from the matrix identified which works needed to be undertaken first, although individual elements would be packaged together where sensible.

In discussion of the report cabinet members noted that:

•                  Surveys would identify risks of issues such as asbestos in school buildings and remedial work would be commissioned as necessary, a contingency pot was also available for unexpected extra costs;

•                  Scheduled works to fire alarms would be planned upgrades, any urgent works to faulty systems would be dealt with as an immediate priority;

•                  Planned works included maintenance to mobile classrooms which were needed to keep the buildings usable.

Group leaders welcomed the planned investment and stated that it was unfortunate there was such a gap between the funding received for capital maintenance of school buildings and the level of need. It was noted that academy schools had a separate process to bid for capital maintenance funds through the Education and Skills Funding Agency. These bids were not always successful and the council had supported some schools to improve their bids for future rounds.

It was resolved that:

(a)             The school maintenance schemes as set out in appendix A be approved for implementation in 2021/22 and 2022/23;

(b)             The Assistant Director Education Development and Skills be authorised to take all operational decisions necessary to implement the approved schemes, and any other urgent contingency schemes required, within the approved budget of £2.940m for maintenance;

(c)             The Assistant Director Education Development and Skills be authorised to take all operational decisions necessary to vary the approved schemes should the amount of funding received from the Department for Education differ from that used to determine the proposed schemes.