It has been announced that schools in Torbay are set to benefit from an injection of just over £4 million.

The amount of funding received from the Local Authority Basic Need Capital Allocation is significantly higher than expected and will enable Torbay Council to deliver a robust school place planning strategy. All council’s have a statutory duty to provide sufficient and appropriate school places and this funding will have an impact on the school year starting in September 2017.

The allocation is based on information collected from local authorities in the 2014 School Capacity Survey. This survey shows forecasted pupil numbers for several years ahead and the Basic Needs Funding is allocated on the comparison of these forecasted pupil numbers with if schools have the capacity to accommodate them. The allocations for financial year 2017-18 are based upon the estimated need for new school places by September 2018.

Cllr Ken Pritchard, Executive Lead for Children, School and Families, said: “Receiving this significantly higher allocation is great news for Torbay and our schools. When we set out our place planning aspirations for the next three years there was some concern over the amount of funding required to deliver it, but the announcement earlier this month has ensured us that we can provide school buildings that are adequate to deal with the numbers of children and young people entering and progressing through our educational system.”

A proposal on how to spend this funding, along with the Children’s Services Capital Programme and Local Authority Capital Maintenance Fund will be presented to the full council meeting on Thursday 26 February 2015. The proposals include: the relocation of Torbay School, the development of a new primary school site in Paignton, additional secondary school places in Torquay and the third phase of capital investment for Furzeham Primary School in Brixham.

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