Primary Capital Programme and Primary Strategy for Change

Primary Capital Programme (PCP)

The government’s Primary Capital Programme (PCP) is a national programme of investment to transform primary school provision over a 14-year period (10 years for authorities the size of Ealing).

The PCP will:

support national and local priorities
deliver the Children's Plan
drive up standards
enable parents to choose between a diverse range of effective primary schools and cement the role of the primary school at the heart of the community
remodel or refurbish approximately half of all schools

Those schools not covered by the PCP still receive devolved formula capital.

Primary Strategy for Change (PSfC)

Ealing was chosen as a pathfinder authority and submitted an initial plan outlining our priorities and vision for primary school provision. As a pathfinder, we received £6.5m towards rebuilding John Perryn Primary School.

Following the assessment of the pathfinder authorities’ plans, the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) released new guidance for all authorities in December 2007. The national capital programme begins in the financial year 2009/10, but before funding is released, all councils were required to submit a Primary Strategy for Change (PSfC) document to the DCSF for approval by 16 June 2008. The PSfC will provide a strategic framework for the longer-term investment decisions that the council will make over the course of the programme.

The final version of the PSfC (pdf) which was submitted to the DCSF is available to view.

A PSfC board, chaired by Rachael Seitz, Director of Schools Service, oversaw the document preparation. The board included representatives from early years, Children’s Services, the two diocesan boards and schools.

The document has five main sections:

The local perspective - an overview of our aims and objectives for primary education and a brief description of the area.
Baseline analysis - an outline of our current performance, deprivation, places, building condition and suitability, links with early years providers, extended services and co-location of primary schools, Sure Start children’s centres and wider children’s services. Information on the level of buildings condition need in schools will be included in the final version of the document.
Long-term aims - our long-term aims for the programme, showing the investment priorities for the next 14 years.
Approach to change - how we will run the Primary Capital Programme, including governance, staffing and resources, criteria for choosing projects, ICT and procurement.
Initial investment priorities - the overall initial investment priorities. The DCSF have asked authorities to specify the projects for 2009/10 and 2010/11. Where it is necessary to join up funding to enable a project to proceed, details of projects will be agreed later in the year as part of the budget process. This will indicate to the DCSF the projects that could be funded within the known grant allocations available to the council. Other projects will be subject to approval through the budget process later in the current financial year.