Issue - meetings

Report of the Head of Schools and Families

Further to Minute No. 55 of the meeting held on 1 November 2018, the Cabinet considered the report of the Head of Schools and Families which provided details of the officer’s response to the alternative options put forward by the Sand Dunes Nursery School staff and parents for the continuation of the Nursery School. The report indicated that no further representations had been received following the publication of the Statutory Notice and Stage 3 consultation period held from 14 November to 12 December 2018.

The report also indicated that the school was currently overspending by approximately £170,100 a year and has now exhausted its available balances. The projected financial position for 2018/19 was a deficit of £306,600.  Should the school close at the end of August 2019 the closing school deficit budget was predicted to be -£404,600 and this would need to be met by the local authority.  There would also be closure costs that would need to be factored into the final deficit position but these were unknown at this time and so cannot be quantified.

The Head of Schools and Families referred to the alternative options set out in Section 3 of the report and the officer’s views that the options were not financially viable and that no business case had been provided for the options; the decision-making process set out in Section 5; the matters to be considered in determining the proposal to close the school set out in Section 8 and the summary and conclusion set out in Section 9 of the report.

During the deliberations, Members raised the following observations/questions: