EAST AYRSHIRE COUNCIL A PROPOSAL DOCUMENT
EAST AYRSHIRE COUNCIL A PROPOSAL DOCUMENT
EAST AYRSHIRE COUNCIL A PROPOSAL DOCUMENT
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East Ayrshire Council is proud of the work undertaken to ensure that young<br />
people are educated in excellent school buildings, however there is more<br />
which needs to be done to further improve our school estate and ensure all<br />
young people are given the opportunity to learn in a building which meets the<br />
Council’s objectives.<br />
(c)<br />
East Ayrshire Council’s Transformation Plan<br />
The Council of East Ayrshire agreed the Transformation Strategy at its<br />
meeting of 28 June 2012. Paragraph 19 of the covering report set out the 10<br />
key strategic imperatives and stated:<br />
“ ix Asset Management – A significant element of the cost of council<br />
services relates to the use of physical assets. These need to be employed to<br />
maximum effect and surplus and underperforming assets disposed of. The<br />
Asset Management Strategy needs to be reviewed to ensure that it is<br />
appropriately re-aligned to reflect changes to strategic priorities. Target<br />
occupancy, usage, accessibility levels and unit costs should be established<br />
for each category of building and the Transformation Strategy should<br />
thereafter include actions to achieve these targets.<br />
The Schools Estate Management Plan has already set a total school<br />
occupancy target of 85%. The Scottish Futures Trust is working on an initial<br />
target reduction of 25% of the national estate. These targets should be<br />
adopted by the Council and pursued relentlessly with regular reports to<br />
Cabinet on their achievement. New capital projects should be expected to<br />
demonstrate net revenue savings over the lifetime of the asset.”<br />
The proposal contained within this document meets the stated objectives in<br />
relation to the Council’s Transformation Strategy as it relates to buildings.<br />
The extensive public engagement exercise that followed the launch of the<br />
Transformation Plan was reported to Cabinet on 05 December 2012.<br />
Specifically in relation to the management of the school estate reported that<br />
school rationalisation could contribute £2.246M towards the overall savings<br />
target of £34.1M. Additionally, the report noted on page 47 that 86.6% of the<br />
respondents agreed that school buildings should be available for community<br />
use outside of school hours and during school holidays, compared to 6.2%<br />
who disagreed. Further, although 29.2% of respondents disagreed that the<br />
Council should improve school occupancy levels to ensure the effective and<br />
efficient delivery of education by reducing the number of educational<br />
buildings, 50.1% agreed with this strategy. (The total number of respondents<br />
was 1,558, which is thought to be a representative sample). Therefore, on<br />
balance more East Ayrshire residents support school rationalisation than<br />
oppose it, and a significant majority wish to see school buildings available for<br />
community use.<br />
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