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.

The cabinet member children and families introduced the report. She highlighted that it had taken some time to get to this stage and thanked officers for their work in negotiating with the Department for Education (DfE). If approved by the cabinet, the Council would be asked to agree the necessary adjustments to the capital programme at its forthcoming meeting.

The service director, education, skills and learning summarised the background to the decision and the current issues with the school building. Work continued to transfer the running of the school to a new Multi Academy Trust and officers reported that assurances had been received that all places at the school would remain available for Herefordshire pupils. The transfer to the new MAT was expected to complete in January 2023 but building work could commence ahead of completion of the formal transfer. The council was also in discussion with the school about increasing the number of places in the future, but this did not form part of the decision before cabinet members.

Cabinet members welcomed the additional contribution from the DfE and recognised the importance of addressing the issues at the school to support pupils

Group leaders and representatives presented comments and queries from their respective groups. There was wide support for the recommendations and the following points were noted:

·       The new buildings would meet appropriate energy efficiency standards and where buildings were being refurbished this would be done with efficiency in mind as far as possible;

·       Recent weather conditions showed the importance of being able to manage excess heat, as well as being efficient to keep warm in cooler weather.

It was unanimously resolved that:

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.