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Publishable Officer Decisions - Friday, 29 August 2025 12:00 pm
August 29, 2025 View on council websiteSummary
The Publishable Officer Decisions meeting of Hounslow Council was scheduled to discuss a capital grant for upgrades to The Hounslow Heath Primary School, and the UKSPF1 2025-2026. The meeting was scheduled to take place on 29 August 2025.
Basic Need Project at The Hounslow Heath Primary School
The Executive Director of Children and Adult Services, Steven Forbes, was asked to approve the allocation of £560,000 of Basic Need Capital grant to deliver upgrades to the Key Stage 1 building at The Hounslow Heath Primary School following its amalgamation. The report pack stated that the amalgamation, which took place in January 2024, identified five projects required to facilitate the amalgamation and to improve the educational environment.
The report pack stated that the proposed works would address issues by:
- Providing a dedicated dining area
- Addressing privacy issues in the existing main hall
- Upgrading floor coverings
- Ensuring compliance with health and safety standards
- Consolidating ICT systems
The report pack stated that these works would improve the school's energy efficiency and reduce future maintenance requirements. It also noted that the available Basic Need Capital funding could be used to upgrade buildings to improve the education environment, as it was not required to increase pupil provision due to London-wide falling roles. The report pack stated that the works are not eligible for funding via the School Condition Allocation grant.
Background
The report pack stated that The Hounslow Heath School is a local authority maintained primary school providing EYFS2, KS13 and KS24 provision with a dedicated SEND5 unit. Until January 2024, the school operated as separate education establishments with dedicated Infant and Nursery and Junior sites.
The report pack stated that during the School Expansion Programme 2012-2014, the two schools were expanded from 5 Forms of Entry (FE) to 7FE. The Infant school was expanded into an existing joining building (Hounslow Education Centre). The report pack stated that the expansion project did not increase the capacity of the existing school hall or provide any additional hall-type space, resulting in the infant school management deciding to provide lunch in the classrooms.
Upon amalgamation, the following issues with the EYFS/KS1 building were identified:
- ICT system not compatible with KS2 system
- Lack of communal dining area
- Main School Hall undersized with direct access to learning spaces and no doors between the hall and the main circulation route
- Time expired floor coverings in communal areas
- Fire doors and safety glazing issues throughout
Corporate Priorities
The report pack stated that the council's Corporate Plan, Ambitious for Hounslow, sets out the council's priorities to create a greener, healthier, cleaner, thriving, safer and liveable borough, and that the project aims to support the delivery of the healthier and thriving priorities.
The report pack stated that The Hounslow Heath Primary School was amalgamated in line with the Hounslow Council Schools Amalgamation Policy dated January 2017 and the updated version dated January 2023.
Proposal and Rationale
The report pack stated that the project aims to address the previously mentioned issues by providing a dedicated dining area, addressing privacy issues in the main hall, upgrading floor coverings, ensuring compliance with health and safety standards, and consolidating ICT systems.
The report pack stated that population rates have not reached projected levels and Hounslow, in line with Greater London, is managing falling roles and surplus pupil places, and that the school has formally reduced its PAN6 back to 5FE. The report pack stated that this has resulted in three surplus classrooms suitable for remodelling to create a new flexible dining and performance space.
The report pack stated that the proposed works would improve the educational environment by upgrading the existing hall to create an enclosed space where noisy activities do not impact the rest of the school and hall activities are not disrupted by pupils leaving classrooms. The provision of a dining hall will enable:
- Pupils to eat communally to encourage social interaction
- Easier provision of hot nutritional meals
- Improved cleanliness of classrooms
- Improved efficiency as there will be a reduced staff requirement to monitor lunchtime
The report pack stated that the proposed works would reduce the required budget for maintenance to parts of the two schools, and that the critical infrastructure improvements remove the need for some planned works to be carried out and the longer-term issues caused by a project that would not be eligible for funding from limited maintenance budgets.
Financial Implications
The report pack stated that the DfE7 Basic Need capital grant is intended to support the creation of mainstream places for pupils aged 5 to 16, and that local authorities can use this funding to create places in whole new schools or through the expansion or remodelling of existing schools in the local area.
The report pack stated that as well as ensuring there are enough classrooms and teachers, the council also needs to ensure that schools are providing good quality facilities to support learning and development, such as lunchtime spaces, circulation areas, assembly and indoor physical education spaces, and that the Basic Needs capital grant can be used for this purpose.
The report pack stated that there are very limited budgets available to enable Capital works to be undertaken in local primary schools and many identified opportunities for improvements have no identified funding to progress them, and that the additional Basic Need Funding was not part of the original 2021/22 and 2022/23 programme, and the works at the Hounslow Heath Primary School can only take place because of the additional funding identified.
The report pack included a table of project cost and forecast:
| Area of spend | 25/26 £,000 | 26/27 £,000 | 27/28 £,000 | Total £,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ICT Upgrade (school delivered project) | 50 | 0 | 0 | 50 |
| Dining Hall, Existing Hall Remodel and Flooring Upgrade (LBH delivered project) | 120 | 172 | 8 | 300 |
| Fire Doors and Glazing Upgrade (LBH delivered project) | 97 | 3 | 0 | 100 |
| Prelims, Contingency, Fees (LBH delivered projects) | 72 | 36 | 2 | 110 |
| Total | 339 | 211 | 10 | 560 |
Legal Implications
The report pack stated that The Hounslow Heath School is a local authority maintained primary school where the site and buildings are wholly owned by the council, and that the Dining Hall and Existing Hall Remodel works will require planning permission.
Climate Emergency Implications
The report pack stated that the project will upgrade the building by replacing the existing poorly insulated concrete roof and single glazed rooflights with a pitched roof insulated to current standards with double glazed Velux rooflights.
The report pack stated that within the constraints of the budget, the projects will aim to provide appropriate sustainable solutions:
| Opportunity / Potential negative impact | Response |
|---|---|
| Reduction in carbon emissions long term | Design of adaptations that can heat and cool with minimal mechanical intervention, and where possible use sustainable heating systems. |
| Opportunity / Potential negative impact | Response |
|---|---|
| Minimise carbon emissions through the project works | Stipulate the use of low carbon building materials and construction practices that will minimise carbon emissions. |
| Mitigate carbon emissions in the above areas where targets are not met | Commit to carbon mitigation investment |
UKSPF 2025-2026
This item was exempt from publication.
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The UKSPF is the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. It is a central pillar of the UK government’s Levelling Up agenda and provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. ↩
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EYFS is the Early Years Foundation Stage. It is a framework for children from birth to 5 years old. ↩
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KS1 is Key Stage 1 of the UK education system. It covers children aged 5-7 years old, in school years 1 and 2. ↩
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KS2 is Key Stage 2 of the UK education system. It covers children aged 7-11 years old, in school years 3-6. ↩
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SEND is Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. ↩
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PAN is Planned Admission Number. It is the number of students that a school is intended to admit each year. ↩
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DfE is the Department for Education. It is the UK government department responsible for education and children's services. ↩
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