The Royal Borough has introduced a scheme that will enable residents to vote for their school or a school of their choice to receive funds for specific projects.
Called the Schools Participatory Budgeting (PB) Scheme, its premise is similar to the successful Neighbourhood Participatory Budgeting (PB) Scheme that has given £179,100 of funding in the five years since it was introduced.
For the Schools PB there will be £100,000 allocated per year, to be split across the three school terms (approximately £33,000 per term). Schools can apply for up to £6,000 per round and the projects will then go to a public vote online.
The scheme will operate as a pilot for the first year, after which it will be reviewed.
The first round of the scheme started this week (Monday 25 April). There are currently 12 school projects nominated for the first round and residents and schools can vote for their favourite ones until Friday 1 July.
The scheme is available to all state-funded schools within the borough and projects can be added to the voting round at any time.From April 2016, all school-related applications will be submitted to the Schools PB Scheme and will no longer be eligible for consideration under the Neighbourhood Participatory Budgeting Scheme.
To ensure the process is fair, school sizes will be taken into account. For example it would be unfair if Charters with 1,707 pupils received more votes than Desborough College with 618 pupils and the different school sizes weren’t factored in. Therefore a pro rata system based on the number of pupils will be used and votes will be counted as a percentage.
Cllr Phill Bicknell, cabinet member for education, said: “Our schools are vital to everyone in the borough, whether or not they have children. They provide employment opportunities and a training ground for future employees.
“We are very pleased to be in a position to introduce the Schools PB initiative, to give even more funds to fantastic projects within our schools.”
Deputy lead member - school improvement, Cllr Ed Wilson, said: “It’s because of the popularity and continued success of the Neighbourhood Participatory Budgeting Scheme that we decided to introduce this one specifically for schools. We want residents to have a say on where this funding should go as they are best placed to know which projects in their community could really do with a boost.”
For more information on the scheme see www.rbwm.gov.uk or www3.rbwm.gov.uk/info/200125/budgets_spending_and_performance/1119/schools_participatory_budget
Schools that would like to nominate a project for a future round should email: Andrew.Scott@rbwm.gov.uk