Leeds City Council's deputy leader calls for additional government support to maintain safe school conditions in Leeds

Ahead of next week’s executive board meeting, Councillor Jonathan Pryor called on the Department for Education (DfE) to work collaboratively with the council, to deliver a school repair programme that ensures all schools in Leeds provide a safe and positive learning environment for pupils.

The council currently receives £6 million every year from the DfE to deliver maintenance work for local authority maintained schools, however the DfE themselves estimate it would cost a minimum of £66.2 million to bring all these  schools back to satisfactory levels.

This funding shortfall is impacting the ability to maintain safe, warm and watertight schools in Leeds.

An update of the work already underway, as part of the Planned Maintenance Programme will be discussed at a meeting of the council’s executive board at Civic Hall on Wednesday 20 September.

The report also outlines current work underway to meet demand for additional secondary and SEN places across the city, with several schemes already either under phased construction or in development. Council led schemes due for completion for September 2023 and onwards include:

• St Edwards Catholic Primary – permanent expansion through extension to existing building (total increase of 70 places)
• Allerton High – permanent expansion through extension to existing building (total increase of 300 places)
• Leeds City Academy – permanent expansion through extension to existing building (total increase of 300 places)
• Coop Nightingale Academy – of new resource and partnership SEN provision (total number of places is 60)
• Iveson Primary – creation of a new resource provision for children with ASD (total number of places is 16)

The council remains committed to ensuring all children in Leeds have access to a good learning environment and will look to work innovatively to deliver solutions for pupils across Leeds. Meanwhile, the council continues to press nationally on a regular basis for additional funding for repairs, writing to the government a number of times, having first raised it in 2018.

Councillor Jonathan Pryor, deputy leader of Leeds City Council and executive member for economy, culture and education said,  "As a council we remain committed to ensuring that every child in Leeds has access to a good quality school environment, it is of vital importance that every child can learn in a safe, warm and watertight schools.

“Our ability to deliver on this commitment is limited, with current levels of funding falling short of the £66.2 million that the Department for Education estimates it would cost to ensure that every child can learn in a safe, warm, and watertight school.

“We urgently need additional government support to help meet the school repair backlog in Leeds.”

To view the executive board report, visit Council and democracy (leeds.gov.uk) (Agenda item 14)

-ENDS-