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A million pounds worth of “ringfenced” money will be going to help one of Bolton’s newest schools expand. Bolton Council has now signed off a transfer of around £1M in basic needs funding to the Department for Education to help with the expansion University Collegiate School (UCS), Bolton. A recent council meeting heard how the money had been put aside and was waiting to be transferred since having been approved all the way back in 2020.
Assistant director of children’s services Paul Rankin said: “It was ring fenced, its not additional. “This is exactly the same money that was ringfenced in 2020 that’s been sat there waiting for us to spend it at the appropriate time.” UCS Bolton is based on Deane Road (Image: Newsquest) Mr Rankin had been addressing a council executive member for children’s services meeting.
Deane Road based UCS Bolton took in its first pupils in September 2020, when it became a secondary school from being a technical college. It was rated as good across all areas in its most recent Ofsted report. The school, which teaches more than 540 pupils, both boys and girls, between the ages of 11 and 19 is part of the Quest Trust.
It was created as a way of meeting the rising demand for secondary school places all across Bolton in recent years. Earlier this year the Department for Education appointed contractors to work on an £17.6M scheme to expand the college.
A report put before the council said that the Department asked the authority to contribute £1M in “basic needs funding” that had already been allocated to Bolton for additional school places. ALSO READ: School undergoes huge transformation to get new Ofsted rating ALSO READ: One of Bolton's newest schools unveils plan for extra four-floor building ALSO READ: Multi-million pound plans to build new high school It said: “In managing existing basic need, the council had envisaged that some funds would need to be allocated to a project of this type and had planned to meet this from within existing resources.” It added: “The DfE have confirmed that the expansion scheme will be led by them rather than the Academy Trust.
“As a result, the DfE have requested that the £1m council funds earmarked for the expansion should be transferred to them directly.” Council cabinet member for children’s services Cllr Martin Donaghy approved the sign off for the basic needs funding to support the Department for Education..
