WRITTEN QUESTIONS PURSUANT TO STANDING ORDER 44
1. Question by Councillor Lambert to the Leader and Lead Member for Strategic Management and Economic Development
A number of councils across the country such as Liverpool, Westminster, Dundee and Kent are all starting to use the social media platform TikTok. TikTok has 1.5 billion global users, 40% of which are aged 16–24 and has growing popularity in the UK. It is a very mobile and flexible medium enabling the production of short videos and access to other information sources. Liverpool also predict that older users will start to explore the possibilities of TikTok.
East Sussex County Council could consider the use of TikTok to assist with communicating valuable information to young people in particular, including offering access to safeguarding, mental health support, advice and support to care leavers, careers advice and skills communication. For older people, it could be used, for example, to assist with recruitment into the care sector.
Will East Sussex County Council explore and consider the use of TikTok as a valuable addition to its communication platform?
Answer by the Leader and Lead Member Strategic Management and Economic Development
East Sussex County Council has made use of TikTok during the pandemic, with advertising aimed at 16-24 year-olds. We are considering how we could make greater use of the platform in future where appropriate. Our surveying of residents shows that 82% of 16-24 year-olds in East Sussex use TikTok regularly. (For 25-44 year-olds it’s 44%, for 45-59 year-olds it’s 7% and for people aged 60+ it’s 6%)
The council runs corporate accounts for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Youtube. In addition to corporate accounts, many teams and departments run their own social media accounts, though all are operated via a central management tool (Hootsuite) to guarantee security and governance. There are 105 social media accounts currently operated by ESCC.
In the year to December 2021, ESCC accounts replied 27,000 times to questions or comments from residents.
2. Question by Councillor Lambert to the Lead Member for Transport and Environment
Brighton and Hove City Council have been piloting School Streets closures since 2019 and now have an established School Streets programme.
School Streets support the safe movement of children to and from school by creating streets that allow for more walking, cycling, and scooting. Motor vehicle access to streets near school entrances is restricted during school drop off and pick up times which reduces vehicle congestion around the school gates, including engine idling, and improves road safety. This in turn encourages and enables active and sustainable travel by children and their parents/carers on the school journey.
School Streets aligns with central government policy including the Gear Change vision document (July 2020) which sets out the national ambition to make walking and cycling the natural choice for short journeys, or as part of a longer journey. East Sussex County Council also has its own transport plans which equally seek to shift how people travel – prioritising walking and cycling for shorter journeys and public transport for longer journeys.
An expected amendment to the Traffic Management Act 2004 will grant Local Authorities in England greater enforcement powers, including the use of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras, which could positively impact on the delivery of any School Streets programme in future years. I understand that the Department for Transport have already asked Local Authorities interested in the enforcement powers to submit an application registering interest and potential locations.
Will East Sussex County Council agree to consult on and investigate the practicalities of piloting a School Streets scheme in the three roads immediately around Seaford Primary school with a view to rolling this out in other places if it is successful? Seaford Primary School sits at the bottom of three closed cul-de-sacs (Wilkinson Way, Chapel Close and Foster Close). Access to the school is via narrow residential roads and there have been consistent complaints from parents about dangerous maneuvering and parking, including driving along the pavement. The proposal has strong support from the Head of Seaford Primary school.
Answer by the Lead Member for Transport and Environment
As Councillor Lambert will hopefully be aware, through the second tranche of Emergency Active Travel funding we received last year, the County Council undertook a School Streets trial project with six schools across the County. These trials operated over a six week period between 21 March and 5 May 2021.
Following the subsequent evaluation, three of the schools who participated in the trial have been prioritised to assess for potential permanent school street measures. These are:
· All Saints CofE Primary School in Bexhill,
· Southover CofE Primary in Lewes, and
· Langney Primary Academy in Eastbourne
Collaborative design workshops have recently been undertaken with each of these schools and the wider community to:
· reflect on the outcomes of last year’s six week trial;
· consider the potential issues and opportunities/solutions of a permanent scheme; and
· to develop a concept design for a permanent school streets scheme in the locality.
We will be reviewing the outcomes of the workshops and concept designs to establish whether any of the schemes can be brought forward for further design work and consultation. If so, we will look to seek appropriate funding to enable their delivery.
In reviewing our Local Transport Plan, which will start this year, we will need to consider the development of an approach to potentially deliver schemes which re-allocate road space. As part of this, consideration will need to be given towards the potential inclusion of annual school streets schemes programme within the Council’s capital programme of local transport improvements.
Therefore, aside from the three schools referred to earlier, we are currently not in a position to consider a pilot School Streets scheme for Seaford Primary or any other schools in the county at this current time.
To support the development of a longer term approach, officers are engaging with the sustainable transport charity, Sustrans, at their national networking events for local authorities delivering school streets schemes. In addition, officers have also engaged with both Brighton & Hove City Council and Kent County Council regarding the approaches they have used to deliver School Streets schemes in their respective geographies.
We are aware of the expected amendment to the Traffic Management Act 2004, which would grant Local Authorities in England greater enforcement powers, including the use of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras, and how these could potentially be utilised as part of a School Streets scheme.
However, we have not currently registered an interest or identified potential locations for using ANPR and its use will need to be considered as part of developing our School Streets schemes.
3. Question by Councillor Murphy to the Lead Member for Education and Inclusion, Special Educational Needs and Disability
There being approximately 1500 houses that currently have planning permission on greenfield sites in the south and east of Hailsham plus an additional 200 houses that were refused planning in Station Road only two weeks ago. If you walk the fields there for that application you will see reptile barriers have already been erected in those particular fields. The people of Hailsham are constantly saying that the infrastructure of the town is not keeping pace with all the housing developments.
Will the Lead Member carry out a meaningful and timely investigation of the primary school places and nursery provision places in Hailsham?
Answer by the Lead Member for Education and Inclusion, Special Educational Needs and Disability
The Council’s School Organisation Plan provides our forecasts for all areas of the county including Hailsham.
Over the last 10 years there have been around 2300 units of new housing completed in Hailsham, and this has significantly boosted pupil numbers in the town. However, the current general downward trend in births across the county has partly offset the impact of new housing. Also, high numbers of Hailsham families continue to opt for places in surrounding rural schools. An analysis of the January 2021 school census revealed that the numbers of Hailsham children in surrounding schools ranges from 53 to 98 per primary year group cohort.
For the above reasons, reception (Year R) intakes in Hailsham have not been as high as originally predicted least to 2024/25, numbers are unlikely to exceed 300 and, in most years, may stay within 270. The current PAN for Year R across the town is 330.
The latest GP registration data, from October 2021, suggests that 330 Yr R places are likely to be more than sufficient for 2023/24 and 2024/25, but that in 2025/26 numbers will be closer to the PAN of 330.
The predicted general upswing in births, coupled with the likely continuation of significant levels of new housebuilding in Hailsham, is likely to mean that from some point in the second half of this decade or early in the next, the number of primary places required in Hailsham will start to rise to nearer the PAN of 330 and additional places could well be needed.
Parental Preferences
The following table shows the parental preferences for the past 5 years for the Hailsham Primary Schools (figures in brackets are total preferences, outside brackets is first preference only):
|
Hailsham Primary Schools |
PAN |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
|
Burfield |
30 |
19 (41) |
27 (49) |
26 (40) |
29 (42) |
22 (28) |
|
Grovelands |
90 |
100 (157) |
80 (134) |
103 (160) |
82 (144) |
82 (127) |
|
HCC |
60 |
N/A |
N/A |
12 (27) |
47 (97) |
59 (107) |
|
Hawkes Farm |
60 |
50 (108) |
52 (113) |
55 (124) |
54 (120) |
26 (84) |
|
Hellingly |
30 |
41 (118) |
37 (107) |
37 (131) |
23 (96) |
27 (92) |
|
Phoenix |
30 |
13 (16) |
9 (15) |
15 (20) |
18 (28) |
9 (16) |
|
White House |
30 |
22 (33) |
19 (33) |
18 (34) |
20 (35) |
13 (25) |
|
Total first prefs |
330 |
245 |
224 |
266 |
273 |
238 |
Officers at the local authority work closely with officers in the districts as they develop their local plans and we consider the impact of local plans on our forecasts. The Council’s forecasts are reviewed every year, and the next run of the forecasts will be undertaken in the summer – this will take account of the latest iteration of Wealden’s Local Plan and the forecasts updated accordingly. The School Organisation Plan is published annually (in the autumn) and includes the latest forecasts and how we will ensure sufficient pupil places.
In producing forecasts of future demand for Hailsham Schools Primary and Secondary Place Planning Areas, we take into account the following factors:
· School admissions allocations and preference data for Reception and Year 7 intakes for the coming academic coming year.
· Existing numbers in schools and historic data on cohort survival patterns to inform how these numbers are likely to change as year group cohorts move up through the schools (e.g. as a result of net migration).
· New housing completions and commitment data at town/parish level provided annually by Wealden District Council, are used to provide estimates of pupil yield from new housing. We also monitor planning applications on all specific sites in the area of 15 units or more.
· Recent parental preference and pupil movement patterns gleaned from school admissions data and the school census. (Many Hailsham children traditionally take up school places outside the town).
· Live Birth and GP Registration data, as well as demographic projections of future births. These inform the estimates of the number of children coming into Reception in future years. The birth projections are ‘dwelling led’ and take account of the likely impact of new housing on future births.
· Existing capacity in each school and known planned changes in capacity. Capacity is monitored annually and updated to reflect expansions, new schools, the addition or removal of temporary classrooms and changes to Published Admission Numbers.
Early Years Places
The forecasts are updated annually and are normally summarised in ESCC’s Childcare Sufficiency Assessment. Because of uncertainties around the impact of Covid on the Early Years Sector, in the past two years, no area level forward forecasts have been published.
The table below shows the Full Time Equivalent (FTE) capacity in Hailsham and the demand – this shows that currently there are 519 FTEs places and demand for 456, so a surplus of 62 places.
|
FTE Capacity v FTE Demand in All Settings (Provider Address) |
|||||
|
Type of Capacity/Demand |
2017/18 |
2018/19 |
2019/20 |
2020/21 |
|
|
FTE Capacity in All Settings |
446 |
431 |
475 |
519 |
|
|
FTE Demand for All Children |
|
|
|
456 |
|
|
Surplus/(Shortfall) |
|
|
|
62 |
|
Currently there are spare Early Years places in the Hailsham EY Area (as with primary schools this includes Hellingly). However, a shortfall is forecast to arise in the middle/second half of the decade, where the continued pressures from new housebuilding are likely to coincide with a general demographic trend of rising births.
In producing forecasts of future demand for Hailsham Early Years Place Planning Areas, we take into account the following factors:
· Data on demographic projections of future births, as well as recent historic single year of age population data. These inform the estimates of the number of under 5s in the area and how numbers are likely to change/grow, for example as a result of migration, as cohorts move up through the system towards school age. The birth projections are ‘dwelling led’ and take account of the likely impact of new housing on future births.
· Using early years census data, recent historic patterns of take up of hours for different Early Years age groups, including take-up of the 30 hour offer. Many children do not require 30 hours per week.
· Using early years census data, recent historic flow patterns of where children live and where they access early years provision.
· New housing completions and commitment data at town/parish level provided annually by Wealden District Council are used to provide estimates of child yield from new housing. We also monitor planning applications on all specific sites in the area of 15 units or more.
· Existing capacity and known planned changes in capacity in Early Years settings in the area. This comes from the Early Years Provider Questionnaire. It is expressed as full-time equivalent (FTE) capacity and takes account of the number of registered places and the number of hours per week that each setting is open.