EAST AYRSHIRE COUNCIL A PROPOSAL DOCUMENT

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