Welcome to this issue of Heads up which will focus on the area of Access and Organisation. Most of you will know me from conversations about growth and/ or admissions. There are however, many other aspects to our service area that link into schools and the future planning.

The school place planning team have been busy remodelling planning areas, identifying new sites for sponsors and ensuring our projections are robust for securing much needed funds from developers.

Early Years sufficiency team has been working extremely hard towards the introduction of the new 30 hour provision for parents.

Admissions have successfully managed to maintain the percentage of parents achieving their first, second and third preference across the county in the coordinated scheme.

Home to School transport triggers much discussion both in terms of parental and member interest. The policy will shortly be reviewed, there has been a consistent over spend in this budget area which needs to be addressed and efficiencies need to be considered moving forward.

Marle Hall remains within the Local Authority as an outdoor education centre. Children are able to go along and experience different ways of learning and complete fun activities.

Licencing for Performances and work for children is a statutory function and the team are situated within my service area. This is a growing area of responsibility; the team work closely with chaperones and ensure safeguarding of all children who are involved in performances/employment.

Sarah Mills
Service Manager – Access and Organisation