To consider adjustments to the Royal Borough’s 2023/24 approved capital programme as follows:

·                an adjustment to the borough’s budget for the delivery of the school maintenance programme in 2023/24, following confirmation of the borough’s School Condition Allocation for 2023/24; 

·                capital budgets to allow for the delivery of new provision for children with special educational needs, following on from Cabinet’s approval of the new Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Capital Strategy in March 2023; and

·                an increase to the budget for the expansion of Windsor Girls’, to enable school funded elements of that scheme to be included within the main contract. 

Please note that this report contains a restricted appendix which has been circulated to Councillors separately and will require moving into closed session to be discussed in detail.

Council considered the report regarding proposed adjustments to the Council’s 2023/24 approved capital programme. The Mayor reminded those present that the report contained a restricted appendix which had been circulated to Councillors separately and would require moving into closed session to be discussed in detail. No one indicated that it would be necessary to discuss the restricted information in order to consider the proposals.

Councillor Amy Tisi proposed the recommendations set out in the report explaining that it was focused on ensuring that resources were properly allocated to the education of children and young people within the borough. She reported that the paper was originally due to go to Full Council in April, but that meeting had been cancelled due to its proximity to the election.

She explained that the paper set out clearly how budgets were being amended and the funding sources behind the three changes. The first proposals was the budget for the school maintenance programme which is funded by the Department for Education (DFE) through the School Condition Allocation grant. Like many DFE grants, this was awarded yearly and the amount was not known until April, after the budget had been agreed by Full Council in February. This means an estimate based on previous years was used until the full amount was known. She was pleased to advise that the grant was £70k more than expected. Cabinet would be considering schemes at local authority and voluntary aided schools to be funded by this budget.

Councillor A Tisi commented that the second adjustment was to provision for children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Disabilities. She reported that Council had approved a budget in February centrally funded via a DFE grant. After the budget had been set, Cabinet approved four new SEN units or resource bases to provide specialist support at mainstream schools: Trevelyan middle and Hilltop First in Windsor, Desborough College and Cox Green in Maidenhead as well as an Early Years school readiness hub to help the youngest learners at The Lawns Nursery School. This was supported by public consultation but required Council approval for the associated budgetary amendments required.

She concluded that the final adjustment was work underway to expand Windsor Girls school to meet increased demand. The Windsor Leaming Partnership wished to undertake some of their own works to the main building at the same time, at a cost to them. An opportunity had arisen to bring their works under the same contract as the build, making a cost saving. The change to the budget reflected that additional work would be paid upfront by the Windsor Learning Partnership before the work was procured. She stated that this would benefit the schools’ most senior pupils at no additional cost to the council.

Councillor Wilson seconded the recommendations drawing the meeting’s attention in particular to the allocations of capital budget to improve the borough’s provision for children with Special Educational Needs (SEN). He reiterated that this was an important area, these are excellent initiatives and some of which had already started.

Councillor Hunt requested an update on progress of the access improvements at Manor Green School as she was aware of ongoing issues on Cannon Lane and would appreciate being able to update affected residents.

On the proposition of Councillor A Tisi, lead member for Children’s Services, Education and Windsor and seconded by Councillor Wilson it was

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY that

i)               the report be noted;

ii)             amending the budget for the 2023/24 school condition programme to £1,170,524 be approved;

iii)            the budgets for the delivery of the Royal Borough’s SEND and AP Capital Strategy, as set out in Table 2 be approved; and

iv)            an increase of £95,000 to the budget for the expansion of Windsor Girls’ School, be approved to be fully funded by a contribution from the Windsor Learning Partnership.