Archived decisions

Contact: George Heller Deputy County Education Officer 01962 846518

1 Summary

1.1 This report updates Members on progress with the above reorganisation as far as the Education Department is concerned. There is a separate report on the agenda from the Director of Property, Business and Regulatory Services on progress with regard to the planning, architectural and costs aspects of the scheme. This latter report will identify a building delay to the main elements of the project and provide reasons for this delay.

1.2 The original proposals, agreed by the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, centred upon:

· the closure on 31 August 2002 of Greenacres School in Winchester and Tankerville School in Eastleigh (both catering for pupils with severe learning difficulties);

· the redevelopment and extension of Shepherds Down School in Compton (currently catering for pupils with moderate learning difficulties from age 3 to 11) to become a 4 to 11 primary school catering for pupils with a range of complex learning difficulties;

· the rebuilding of Lankhills School in Winchester (currently catering for pupils with moderate learning difficulties from age 11 to post-16) to become a secondary and post-16 establishment for pupils with complex learning difficulties;

· the opening of a ten-place unit at Shakespeare Junior School in Eastleigh to cater for pupils with moderate learning difficulties in a resourced mainstream establishment;

· the amalgamation of Medecroft Opportunity Centre and the mainstream nursery class at St Bede Controlled Church of England Primary School in Winchester to become an inclusive early years centre for the city.

· The development of an early years centre on the Nightingale Primary School site in Eastleigh on lines similar to the Winchester facility.

1.3 The implementation of the reorganisation is now subject to a likely delay of two terms. This has been caused by a delay in securing planning permission for the Lankhills' site development (permission has now been granted) and by the need to apply to central Government for a licence (now received) to remove bats from the residential block (to be demolished) and to provide suitable alternative habitats elsewhere on the campus.

1.4 Greenacres and Tankerville will, therefore, close at the end of the spring term 2003 with Lankhills and Shepherds Down opening as "new" schools at the beginning of the summer term. It is hoped that the early years centres for Winchester and Eastleigh will open in the autumn of 2003 though there are significant issues to be resolved. The learning difficulties unit at Shakespeare will open in September 2002, as planned.

2 Lankhills: Residential Provision

2.1 The scheme at Lankhills includes residential provision for 10 pupils. Considerable efforts have been made in recent times to investigate whether additional funding might be able to be provided through a charity to enable an additional five beds to be provided for respite care; this would amount to an additional floor at the residential facility and would cost in the region of £250/£300,000. The County Council had always made it clear that respite care would not be provided from within the overall scheme's funding.

2.2 At the end of the summer term a request was made for an extension to the deadline for the extra money to be raised. Officers in the Education Department, Estates Practice and Property, Business and Regulatory Services have considered this request on the basis that no further delay can be accepted as far as the total scheme is concerned. However, in the light of the delay of the scheme in general, the County Council is prepared to extend the period whereby a guarantor can be provided until 30 November 2001. It will be necessary for the appropriate legal documents, to include the guarantor, to be signed and completed by mid-December. County Council officers have also made clear that the Council's Capital Programme cannot meet any of the costs of this additional facility so the fund raising and/or the guarantor will have to meet the full cost of the additional construction including fees for the completion of the building contract. The headteacher and governors of Lankhills School support the concept of the development and Members will be updated as the total scheme progresses.

2 Planning for Reorganisation

3.1 A planning group, chaired by the Deputy County Education Officer, meets half termly. It comprises the headteachers of all the schools involved as well as officers in the Education Department and the Project Architect.

3.2 The planning group receives updates on progress relating to the project and monitors general progress towards the implementation of all aspects of the scheme.

3 SEN Forum

4.1 The SEN Forum meets at the end of each term to receive an update from officers on progress. The Forum has in its membership staff, governor and parent representatives of all the schools involved. Members of the SEN Panel are normally invited to Forum meetings where opportunity is given for questions about the scheme and comments on how the various aspects of it are progressing. It acts as a very useful sounding board for officers as they work on the scheme's implementation.

5 Staffing

5.1 The headteachers of Lankhills and Shepherds Down, in consultation with their governors, have drawn up teaching staff structures for their enlarged schools and interviewed staff from the closing schools (Greenacres and Tankerville) in the latter part of the summer term 2001. Letters of intent to offer an appointment in the new structures have been sent to teachers following their interviews and these will be converted into contracts of employment as soon as budgets for the year 2002/2003 have been confirmed. The situation at the end of July at Lankhills was that there remained three teacher vacancies still to be filled for the spring of 2003 (date of implementation). All teacher vacancies at Shepherds Down have been filled for 2003.

5.2 The County Council is currently consulting with headteacher representatives and UNISON on a grading structure for Learning Support Assistants which would apply to all schools. Schools can employ either Learning Support Assistants (LSAs) or Special School Assistants (SSAs), depending on the nature of the role performed; with the latter benefiting from a higher salary scale. Greenacres and Tankerville Schools have a predominance of SSAs; posts at Lankhills and at Shepherds Down include a mix of SSA and LSA posts, based on operational needs and budget affordability. The implications of the grading structure for posts in the new structures at Lankhills and Shepherds Down will need to be considered. Consideration is also being given to salary protection arrangements for support staff from closing schools appointed to lower graded posts at Lankhills and Shepherds Down as well as the scope for centrally funding such costs. This would require a change to the local management scheme, necessitating consultation with all schools and DfES approval.

6 Post-16 Provision

6.1 There is post-16 provision currently at Lankhills, Greenacres and Tankerville. Following reorganisation post-16 provision will be centred at Lankhills. Until Easter 2003 the post-16 provision for Greenacres students at Gordon House will be retained.

6.2 During the summer term 2001 a half-day conference was held for representatives of all local colleges in the Eastleigh and Winchester area. The purpose of the conference was to brief the colleges on the principles underlying the special schools reorganisation in Eastleigh and Winchester, a pattern which has already been established in Aldershot and Farnborough and which is also reflected in the possible future reorganisation of special schools in East Hampshire on which consultation is taking place during September 2001.

6.3 A second, equally important, purpose of the conference was to share good practice on the education of students post-16 who have a range of learning difficulties. It was also important for officers to make clear to the college representatives that, as an increasing number of children with special educational needs (SEN) are being educated in mainstream primary and secondary schools in Hampshire, they will need to work on the basis that an increasing number of such students will be embarking on courses at the colleges at age 16, hence their need to consider what sort of courses might best respond to their needs.

7 Early Years Centres

7.1 Work continues on the amalgamation of Medecroft Opportunity Centre and the St Bede Nursery. Education Personnel Services will be presenting proposals to a temporary governing body in consultation with the Teachers Liaison Panel (TLP), and the support staff trade unions to facilitate the appointment of existing staff within ring fence arrangements

7.2 There are two options as far as a location for the new Winchester Early Years Centre is concerned. The first is the redevelopment of the Greenacres building and site following that school's closure. However, that is likely to be an extremely expensive option and there is no further County Council funding to enable the work to be carried out. A second option is, therefore, currently being pursued which relates to building a new Early Years Centre on a County Council owned site in Winchester funded in part by disposal of the Greenacres site. Various possibilities are being considered. Feasibility studies on these options will be brought to a future meeting of this Panel.

7.3 An Early Years Centre will be established for Eastleigh on the Nightingale Primary School site. Nightingale Primary School currently operates in its former infant and junior school buildings which it has continued to inhabit since the amalgamation of the two schools to form a primary school some considerable time ago. A feasibility study is taking place and discussions will take place with the school's governors.

Recommendation

That the report be noted.

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