Lead Member for Education and Inclusion, Special Educational Needs and Disability
DECISIONS made by the Lead Member for Education and Inclusion, Special Educational Needs and Disability, Councillor Bob Standley, on 23 February 2026 at Remote Meeting via Microsoft Teams
Councillor Alan Shuttleworth spoke on item 5 (see minute 37)
32. Decisions made by the Lead Cabinet Member on 3 December 2025
32.1 The Lead Member approved as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 3 December 2025.
33. Disclosures of interests
33.1 There were none.
34. Urgent items
34.1 There were none.
35. Reports
35.1 Reports referred to in the minutes below are contained in the minute book.
36. Crisis and Resilience Fund: Funding for Free School Meal eligible children in the Easter and May 2026 school holidays
36.1 The Lead Member considered a report by the Director of Children’s Services
DECISIONS
36.2 The Lead Member RESOLVED to:
1) Approve the proposed plan for the use of funding from the Crisis and Resilience Fund to provide food vouchers to eligible Free School Meal pupils for the Easter and May 2026 school holidays; and
2) Note that a further report on the use of Crisis and Resilience Fund will be brought to the March meeting.
REASONS
36.3 The announcement of the Crisis Resilience Fund provides an opportunity to support residents, including families, cope with the impact of financial shocks whilst investing in the infrastructure and resilience-building interventions that can reduce the impact of financial insecurity in the longer term. Continuing the provision of Huggg food vouchers for free school meal eligible children in the Easter and May 2026 school holidays will provide continuity of support to these families.
37. Admission arrangements for East Sussex Schools 2027-28 (determination)
37.1 The Lead Member considered a report by the Director of Children’s Services
DECISIONS
37.2 The Lead Member RESOLVED to:
1) approve the proposed admission arrangements for Community and Voluntary Controlled (VC) schools for the 2027-28 academic year as set out in Appendix 1 of the report;
2) approve the proposed published admission numbers (PANs) for Community and VC schools for 2027-28 as set out in Appendix 2 of the report, specifically the proposed PAN reductions at Hankham Primary School and Southover CE Primary School;
3) approve the proposed co-ordinated schemes of admissions as set out in Appendices 3-6 of the report; and
4) note the altered arrangements for waiting lists following a recent decision by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator.
REASONS
37.3 The School Admissions Code 2021 (‘the Code’) states that admission authorities must determine (set) their admission arrangements annually.
37.4 The determined admission arrangements for Community and VC schools in 2027-28 will be published on the East Sussex County Council website by 15 March 2026 as required under current legislation. Any objection to these arrangements can then be made to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator until 15 May 2026. The final arrangements will be published in the composite prospectus online (and available in hard copy on demand) by 12 September 2026 as required by the School Admissions Code 2021.
37.5 Forecasts show that reduced PANs at Hankham Primary School and Southover CE Primary School will be sufficient to meet in area demand for the foreseeable future.