Issue details

At the request of Schools Forum, the Department for Education / Secretary of State gave permission to establish a central Schools Block DSG expenditure budget of £1,000,000 to focus on two areas:-
• Access;
• Safeguarding.

The budget is provided to deliver learning environment improvements within Schools, Academies, PRUs and Learning Centres and it is expected that a 10% contribution will be required towards any project based on the estimate provided. It is intended that the funding will be allocated over a 3 year period with a full review and progression report supplied to School Forum in July 2018.

Schools Forum delegated responsibility for administering the funds through the School Organisation Board and the initial requests were considered on 9 November 2017. The Board discussed each application on a case by case basis following recommendations from Construction Services and the School Organisation Service. The approved bids were felt to meet the defined criteria of the Safeguarding and Access fund and were as such approved under these conditions.

Additional conditions were also placed including that fencing should be installed at the accepted height of 1.8 metres due to planning regulations, unless specific need can be evidenced otherwise.