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School Organisation Plan

Joan Stocker Cabinet Spokesperson for Education has issued the following statement regarding some of the long term issues raised in the draft school organisation plan. She says 

"The local authority has a statutory responsibility both to secure sufficient school places, to manage its building stock sensibly and produce a school organisation plan. This document will be produced for consultation in September. 

The report, which went to the County Council's Cabinet on 8th July, lays a platform for the publication of the School Organisation Plan. It refers to a soft careful approach, engaging local communities in early discussions and is certainly not putting forward any proposals at all for school closures. We need to be absolutely clear about that. The Plan looks at Early Years provision, Post-16 provision, and options for the alternative uses of school premises. Clearly, that's one way in which surplus capacity can be managed, and indeed that is actively happening in a number of our schools. It will cover any issues associated with the provision of places and the effective and efficient use of school buildings. 

In the secondary sector, the government is putting in place a proposal to renew the secondary schools building stock nationally, over the next 10 - 15 years to produce schools fit for the 21st Century. That would provide an opportunity to build new schools and perhaps close other ones and indeed give us a chance to better manage our surplus places. 

The Learning & Skills Council is looking at the possibility of creating a single sixth form college in Carlisle. The local authority has not taken a position on this issue, as the Learning & Skills Council has not yet consulted the Council. What is clear is if the proposal were to go ahead then there would be implications for the 11 to 18 schools and we would need to take proper account of that. At this stage nothing has been published though it's clear that the Learning & Skills Council does intend at least to begin to open this debate."