Issue - meetings

Background:

This report outlined the outcomes of the informal consultation period on the Council’s proposals to ‘Increase pupil numbers’ and ‘transfer to a new site’ at Abbey Court Special School, by way of statutory prescribed alterations and requested authority to commence the period of statutory consultation.

The report and accompanying appendices set out details of the seven week period of informal public consultation, where proposals were published and made available to interested parties. This had included a public consultation document and a public meeting.

A breakdown of the 150 written responses received was set out in the report. It was noted that 144 (96%) supported the proposal, five objected and one, from Temple Mill Primary School that shared the Temple site, ticked neither box but raised some concerns. A transcript of the public meeting was attached as Appendix 3 to the report and a response from the children of Abbey Court was included at Appendix 6 of the report. The report provided officer responses to the issues and concerns raised.

It was noted that the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee had considered the response to the informal consultation on 25 March 2014. Details of the Committee’s discussion were set out in the report.

Reasons:

Approval to proceed to a period of statutory representation will ensure the Council complies with its duty to follow the full consultation process when proposing changes to school organisation.