Decision details

To consider a Report of the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services seeking an approval for a proposed amendment to capital expenditure.

On 26 September 2011, Cabinet gave approval for expenditure of £485,000 on capital investment at Upper Shirley High. The proposed works included investment in reinstating a portion of the roofing; replacing pipework and windows; and building an additional toilet block. Since becoming an Academy, however, the School’s priorities have shifted and it is now proposed that this money be invested in the building of a double-storey modular classroom block, in order to provide additional space for their increasing intake.

(i)  To add, in accordance with Financial Procedure Rules, a sum of £485,000 to the Children’s Services capital programme to deliver a new modular classroom block at Upper Shirley High. 

(ii)  To approve, in accordance with Financial Procedure Rules, capital expenditure of £485,000 in 2012/13 from the Children’s Services capital programme to deliver a new modular classroom at Shirley High School.

(iii)  To note that this amends the decision of Cabinet dated 26th September 2011 (recommendations (i) and (ii) and paragraph 13) which provided for the expenditure of £485,000 at Upper Shirley High to deliver replacement of roof coverings, pipework, windows and window frames and provision of a toilet block.

(iv)  To delegate authority to the Director of Children’s Services and Learning to do anything necessary to give effect to (i) above including incurring expenditure up to the approved expenditure level of £485,000, entering into contracts and other associated matters.

1.  Southampton is currently experiencing a significant rise in birth rates relative to historic trends.  In order to deal with the increasing number of primary pupil place requirements that this brings, the Council has committed to the Primary Review: Phase 2 expansion programme.  The first expansions took effect from the beginning of the 2011/12 academic year and it is clear that the envisaged increased demand for pupil places is materialising as expected.

2.  Upper Shirley High School is already nearing its maximum net capacity figure of 793 and its ancillary facilities are proving insufficient to cope with the number of pupils already in the school.  Moreover, as increasing levels of pupils filter from the primary to the secondary sector, it is anticipated that the school will have to accommodate up to 900 pupils in total, which could only be accommodated by a physical expansion of the building area available at the school.  The school and Children’s Services and Learning’s Infrastructure Division are therefore keen that this expansion is effected now, in order to maximise the utility derived from the funding presently available.  The most efficient means of achieving this expansion is via investment in a new modular classroom block.

The principal alternative to proceeding with the recommendation of this report is to proceed with the project as originally envisaged in the Cabinet Decision of 26 September 2011.  Whilst the capital maintenance works proposed for this school within the associated Cabinet Report are still required, the Council has agreed with the school that, if the former agrees to complete the modular expansion project, the latter will undertake the requisite maintenance over an elongated timescale.  Furthermore, the Academy Trust that oversees the school has provided the Council with a letter to confirm that, if the revised position is agreed:

“[The school] will make no further claims from the Authority in respect of capital maintenance works in relation to its building and/or site and… absolves the Authority entirely from any liability (in terms of Health and Safety and the like) in terms of outstanding capital maintenance-related issues.”

Since the Council has committed to fund a project at this school and since the capital maintenance works can more easily be dealt with by the school than the expansion project (the former being more readily phased), the option of proceeding with the project as originally outlined has been rejected.