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The Update: 12 November 2024
Here is your Tuesday update, covering:
- Primary School Applications for September 2025 now open
- Interim Principal Contractor appointed to restart Fairwater Community Campus construction project
- Cardiff Council Reveals New Children's Homes Strategy 2024 to Enhance Care for Children Looked After
- Cardiff's plans for the future direction of School Improvement Services
Primary School Applications for September 2025 now open
Applications for primary school places to start in September 2025 are now open and parents are encouraged to make use of all five preferences to get the best chance of securing a school they want.
Cardiff Council is also appealing to families to apply on time and to remember that a child is not automatically entitled to a reception place at a primary school where they attend the nursery. A new application must be made for a reception class place at primary school.
Every area of Cardiff is served by a Welsh-medium community primary school, an English-medium community primary school, a Church in Wales Primary School and a Catholic Primary School.
Applications for admission to community primary schools are made directly to the Council through the online admissions system.
The Council also coordinates admissions for 21 of the 23 faith primary schools. This year St Patrick's R.C Primary School joins the coordinated admissions scheme. This enables parents to submit their preferred schools all on one online application.
For a place at a school that is part of coordinated admissions scheme, you must apply through the Council's online admissions system.
Parents applying for a place at Llandaff City C.W. Primary School or St John Lloyd R.C Primary School should apply directly to the school.
Interim Principal Contractor appointed to restart Fairwater Community Campus construction project
Cardiff Council has appointed an interim principal contractor for the Fairwater Community Campus, safeguarding the £108m project following ISG Construction Ltd going into administration, and in doing so making payments of over £7m to the existing supply chain.
Wales-based construction company Borley Engineering Services Ltd (BESL) has been selected as the emergency interim principal contractor to ensure that work on site can restart as quickly as possible. This decision comes while a tender exercise gets underway to select a replacement principal contractor to see the project through to its conclusion.
As part of the arrangements with ISG's administrator, the Council will appoint BESL on an emergency basis and will save jobs and protect the works completed so far by making payments in excess of £7m to the existing subcontractors and suppliers for works already completed. It is believed that the Fairwater Community Campus is one of the largest projects ISG had on site across the UK and this arrangement has not been replicated elsewhere. The local authority has actively engaged with the subcontractors throughout the process, of which many are based within 20 miles of the Fairwater Community Campus site.
Funded by Cardiff Council and Welsh Government, the project is Cardiff's largest education development funded under the Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme to date.
The scheme includes the construction of three new build schools for Cantonian High School, Riverbank School and Woodlands High School, all situated on the single site in Fairwater.
Cardiff Council Reveals New Children's Homes Strategy 2024 to Enhance Care for Children Looked After
A new report outlining Cardiff's commitment to providing safe and nurturing environments for Children Looked After in the city has been revealed.
The comprehensive Childrens Homes Strategy 2024 will be brought to Cardiff Council's Cabinet for approval and recommends approving the Providing Homes for Children Strategy, delegating authority for procurement processes, and collaborating with other local authorities.
The strategy is part of the Council's response to the Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill, which mandates the use of not-for-profit entities for providing care home services.
Key Highlights of the Strategy
Building on Success: The strategy builds on the Cardiff Children's Services Strategy 2023-26, which focuses on providing the right support for children at the right time and place. Over the past 18 months, Cardiff has successfully sourced, refurbished, and registered four new residential homes, with four more homes under refurbishment. These homes currently provide places for 20 children in need of care. Additionally, a larger property with five self-contained flats has been purchased and is being used to support young people.
Future Plans: The strategy aims to significantly increase the number of children's homes in Cardiff, reduce reliance on the market, and create new contracting arrangements with providers. The goal is to deliver approximately 20 new homes within a commissioning model, providing additional places for 60 children.
Engagement and Collaboration: An engagement event held in September 2024 received positive feedback from over 70 representatives from various organizations. The main feedback emphasized the importance of long-term contracts, block contracting to reduce the impact of empty beds, and greater collaboration across providers and public agencies. The strategy also includes collaboration with other local authorities to meet specialist needs, such as a parent and baby assessment unit.
Financial and Legal Framework: The strategy addresses financial pressures due to increased reliance on external residential placements. The overall commission budget for residential placement has seen a significant increase, with the Children Services base budget growing by 60% since 2019/20 and the external placements budget increasing by 85%. The primary drivers for these increases include fee uplifts in response to the real living wage and cost of living crisis, as well as the higher costs associated with more complex and specialist placements.
Collaboration with Other Local Authorities: The strategy includes plans to collaborate with other local authorities to meet specialist needs that Cardiff alone cannot sustain. For example, Cardiff is in early-stage discussions with other local authorities about establishing a parent and baby assessment unit. This collaboration aims to pool resources and expertise to provide specialized services that benefit children across multiple regions.
Cardiff's plans for the future direction of School Improvement Services
Since April 2014, Cardiff Council has worked alongside its four neighbouring local authority partners to implement Welsh Government's current National Model for Regional Working.
Welsh Government has recently reviewed the roles and responsibilities of education partners in Wales and the delivery of school improvement arrangements, known as the ‘Middle Tier review'.
The primary aim of the review was ‘to improve educational outcomes through stretching our learners and reducing the equity gap.' The Review concluded that School Improvement Services should be developed so that:
- School leaders have an opportunity to lead on school improvement matters through a greater focus on local collaboration and partnership working between school leaders and their local authority.
- Partnerships developed between more than one local authority to support wider collaboration.
- There is stronger national leadership with clearer national priorities for schools and a simplification of the national funding mechanisms with as much resource as possible going directly to schools or supporting groups of schools to work together.
Welsh Government has published draft guidance to inform transition to new School Improvement arrangements and based on the feedback from headteachers, and a wider exploration of school-to-school working, Cardiff Council is seeking Cabinet Approval for the proposed future direction for School Improvement Services.
