Councillor Peter Walker explained that there was sufficient provision of secondary school places for the next few years so the review was looking at the issue before the need was critical. He added that the borough is dependent on central government to an extent for expanding the provision of places, although there is land in the borough for school sites. He also stated that the task group had looked into partnerships with the private sector to raise money for new school sites. He said he was encouraged that there was consensus across four parties on the review’s recommendations.

Councillor James Holmes agreed with Councillor Peter Walker and added that within the report were large opportunities that could be taken and should be explored. He thanked Councillor Martin Whelton and the officers who had helped with the report.

Councillor Martin Whelton thanked the task group and commented that the secondary school places situation was lined up to be the next big challenge for the borough after primary school places. He mentioned that 2018 would see a big increase in secondary school place demand and that the provision process needed to start now, so it was good to be looking at it already.

He explained that there were still 200 surplus places to be filled. After that Merton would need to look at expansion. He mentioned that he had met with secondary heads recently to discuss the matter and that proposals would be made this year.

He added that the council was looking to identify a site for a new school already. . A decision on this would be made by the end of the school year.

Councillor Martin Whelton also informed the panel that Cabinet had agreed for £28m to be put aside for this purpose, which was a positive step although still not enough. He said that government grants and other solutions would be needed. Finally he said that while forecasts for demand had been accurate so far, the council did have scenarios set out for various eventualities into the 2020s. He added that this was a challenge being faced across London and thanked the task group for their work.

Councillor Karin Forbes welcomed the mention in the report of the aim to limit secondary school provision to 10 Forms of Entry (FE). She asked if schools were made aware of this.

Paul Ballatt said that the report had been presented to heads. A formal letter to each school would request their approval of the expansion plan and ask for their preference for consideration in the sequence of the programme. He said more than 10FE would be undesirable but that the council could not guarantee this position forever as circumstances could change over the years.

Councillor Iain Dysart stated that he thought it was useful to be looking at the issue at this stage, before it became too serious a challenge and while there was still a surplus. He spoke positively about the task group’s discussions with neighbouring boroughs.

Colin Powell welcomed the report, but asked why diocesan boards had been referred to rarely and faith schools were so far down in the list of types of schools. He welcomed the reference to Faith schools in recommendation 3 but asked why it only mentioned interest in attendance and not their capacity to provide additional places. He asked that diocesan boards be consulted more as their schools performed well above the Merton average.

Councillor James Holmes replied that the task group had specifically looked into faith schools, did value their role, and had agreed for further work to be done looking at their role in providing additional places. He stressed that faith schools were a part of the strategy for providing places.

Colin Powell suggested that the council could benchmark its progress with other diocesan boards as well as other London boroughs.

RESOLVED: Panel endorsed the report and its recommendations to be forwarded to Cabinet for their October 2013 meeting.