The Name Game Process

The shortlists are now to be considered by the Council’s School Estates Strategy Board (SESB) and also circulated to the Trades Unions and the Perth & Kinross Community Planning Partnership. The final decision will be made by elected members via the appropriate Council Committees, bearing in mind the criteria detailed above.

It is anticipated that a report will be put before the Lifelong Learning Committee on 22 November 2006. Should a view be taken, either by the SESB or Council Committees, not to support previous recommendations, steps will then be taken to agree a way forward with the User Group concerned.

The inputs from key stakeholders (eg local communities, Church representatives for denominational schools) and the Council will be given equal consideration. There is, of course, significant local community representation on the Campus User Groups, including local Ccouncillors.

Planning Approvals

As indicated last month, the Council has commissioned an independent consultant to address the issues raised by Historic Scotland regarding the Breadalbane campus. They will report within a short time, to enable a final decision from Scottish Ministers on the whole project.

Construction Schedules

A finalised construction schedule will be announced once Financial Close is reached, which expected to be the end of November 2006. This, and associated information on all the campuses, will be publicised at that time.

Current and Future Communications

Regular updates will also be provided as works progress to ensure local communities are kept up to date and informed. The In-School Co-ordinator for each campus will continue to be the local point of contact and information, e.g. through newsletters, User Group meetings etc, and their work will continue to be supported by the Investment in Learning Team.

An FAQ is already operational on the Investment in Learning section of the Council’s website (www.pkc.gov.uk/investmentinlearning), which covers both general queries about the Investment in Learning Programme and campus-specific matters.

This has been updated periodically in recent months (e.g. following the public consultation on Axiom’s campus designs) and will continue to be revised and expanded as the Programme progresses. We are currently looking at how this facility can be further developed, for example, by creating mini-FAQs on the web page for each campus.