Agenda item

To advise the Committee of any petitions received by the Council which fall within the remit of this Committee including a summary of the response sent to the petition organisers by officers.

Discussion:

The Committee received a report advising of a petition received by the Council which fell within the remit of this Committee and had been referred to this Committee by the lead petitioner as she had been dissatisfied with the response received from the Director.

The Committee welcomed Mrs Hoskins to the meeting and invited her to address the Committee on the concerns of the petitioners.

Mrs Hoskins, who spoke on behalf of the lead petitioner, outlined the basis of the petition which requested the Council to build the secondary education building for Abbey Court (a special school for children with the most complex Special Educational Needs and Disabilities – SEND) on the Cliffe Road, Strood site.  She explained how concerned the parents of children at Abbey Court School were about the limited secondary school provision given that the pupils were children with the most severe and profound disabilities and learning difficulties. She described the difficulties the children and their families experienced every day and explained how Abbey Court School provided an invaluable safe place for the children to benefit from social inclusion and schooling therapies, which was close to home and highly commended the provision at the new primary site of the school.  She added that the petitioners would like clarity on what the findings of the ongoing SEN review had been to date and when the completion of the review was likely to be.

The Director of Children and Adult Services responded, confirming that the Council shared the aspirations of the petitioners with regard to fewer children with SEND being educated out of Medway.  He advised the Committee that new funding had been made available through the Department for Education (DfE) and the Council was now actively working on a bid for the funding to build a free school and added that the SEND review was an essential part of the submission.  He added that he was meeting with the Headteacher of Abbey Court School the following week to strengthen communication lines with the school moving forward.

Members then raised a number of comments and questions, which included:

·         Bid for free school funding – Members were very supportive of the bid for funding and welcomed the opportunity to secure the capital to fund secondary school provision for children with the most severe and profound medical and learning needs.  It was confirmed that officers were working actively on the bid, which had to be submitted in October 2018.

·         ‘Plan B’ – a number of Members asked what the plan for additional provision was if the bid for funding a free school was unsuccessful.  Officers explained that the local authority had no capital available itself for the build but was working extensively on interim arrangements to put in place as well as securing funding and planning for provision in the longer term and hoped to report to the Cabinet on the issue later in the month.

·         Communications – a Member requested that the parents of Abbey Court School be kept informed of significant Committee meetings, such as Cabinet, Council and Overview and Scrutiny Committees, where relevant discussions and decisions would take place.  The Director of Children and Adult Services confirmed that he was keen to establish the best forms of communicating information and would cover this issue in his forthcoming meeting with the Headteacher of Abbey Court School.

·         SEND Review – Members requested that the SEND review (needs analysis) be completed as soon as possible and that the review be published when completed.

·         Timescales – in response to a question about timescales in relation to the bid, it was confirmed that the bid must be submitted in October 2018, the outcome of which should be known in early 2019.  If successful, proposer groups would need to make submissions to the DfE in Spring 2019 with announcements expected in Summer 2019.

·         Planning permission –the need for planning permission was raised, in relation to its potential impact on timescales.  Reference was made to existing planning permission which had been granted for the secondary school building at the Cliffe Road site.

Decision:

The Committee:

1)     thanked the petitioners for presenting the petition;

2)     noted the report, and;

3)     recommended the Cabinet to indicate when the SEND review was likely to be completed, for this to be completed as soon as possible and for the review outcomes to be published when completed.