Issue - meetings

Background:

This report provided details of a proposal to restructure Alternative Provision in Medway, which had been developed in response to an exercise undertaken during 2018 by Local Authority officers and headteachers to assess how the Local Authority could support schools to retain more children and young people with additional needs or behavioural difficulties who were at risk of exclusion or placement breakdown within mainstream schools. Section 3 of the report explained the current arrangements for Alternative Provision in Medway and section 4 of the report outlined areas for further action.

The report stated that delivery of the recommendations required a restructure of the organisation, governance and capacity of Medway’s Alternative Provision. The proposals were:

·         to amalgamate Will Adams and The Rowans into an all-through provision, initially on a split site and over time to merge onto a single site at The Rowans; and

·         this would be achieved by the technical closure of Will Adams and the expansion of The Rowans.

The report stated that the Council would be the decision maker on the proposals to close Will Adams and the Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC) would be the decision maker on the expansion of The Rowans.

It was proposed, subject to the outcome of the period of consultation, to formally implement the changes during or after the summer term 2020.

A Diversity Impact Assessment (DIA) had been undertaken on these proposals and was set out as Appendix 1 within Supplementary Agenda No.2.

Reasons:

Approval to proceed to a period of consultation will ensure the Council has considered the views of stakeholders when making changes to service delivery.