Agenda item

RESOLVED: That Cabinet:

a)    Noted that the selection process for the new school involves the Council putting forward a recommendation to the DfE for the preferred trust, following a rigorous selection process.

b)    Note the linked paper, ‘St John Tiffield property arrangements’ on the use of the St John’s Tiffield Site, St. John’s Road, Tiffield, NN12 8AA for the new school.

c)    Agreed in principle borrowing up to £10,000,000 to make up the shortfall for the cost of building the new school, which is up to £23m, with delegated authority to the s151 officer to amend the capital programme once full feasibility works are completed. Note that the remaining cost of the build will be met through capital grant funding received by the Council.

Note: the estimated building and capital required is subject to construction cost inflation. This had been estimated at one per cent per month currently. Compounded, this could be as much as 13-14 per cent a year. Delay in construction work will lead to further risk of cost rises.

REASONS RESOLVED:

1.    The proposed new school will help to ensure that the council is able to fulfil its statutory obligation of providing a sufficiency of ASC, SLCN and SLD SEND places within West Northamptonshire in future years. It will also provide new learners with access to excellent specialist provision that will significantly improve future lifelong outcomes.

2.    The establishment of a new ‘all-through’ special school can also be considered a benefit to all of West Northamptonshire’s mainstream primary and secondary schools. It will reduce placements at a mainstream school setting where a child’s needs can only be appropriately met at a special school.

3.    The new school will also reduce pressure on the high needs block (HNB) element of the dedicated schools grant (DSG) via a reduction in the number of children being required to be placed in out of county and independent provisions to meet their individual needs. The average cost of an independent placement is £61,000 whilst the average cost at a non-independent school is £25,000 – a reduction on average of £36,000 per place.

4.    Based on previous placements, around 50 per cent of the expected new school intake, would have been placed at an independent placement due to the lack of state-sector funded special schools or resourced provisions. Placements at the new school will result in approximate net cost avoidance of £4,000,000 once the school is full. A reduction in spend against the revenue general fund is also expected to be secured through reduced home to school transport costs as a result of fewer further away placements being made.

Note: cost avoidance is NOT the same as a cost-saving. It is not cashable as the council will be spending more money each year on the extra costs of pupils who have significant additional needs. For example, 100 pupils

with the level of need requiring a place at the new free special school will cost approximately £2,500,000. This was an extra cost to the high needs budget. However, if these places are not available, independent schools

places will be required, at a cost of £6,100,000. While this enables a large cost avoidance of £3,600,000, it is still additional expenditure.

1.    The new free school will enable the Council to make savings where a child is currently placed in an independent or out of county school and the parent agrees to a transfer of their child to a state-funded special school. For every 10 who do this, a cost saving of £360,000 will be made (independent cost of £610,000 becomes a £250,000 cost in a state-funded special school).

2.    The new free school should reduce the number of appeals lodged to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) by families in WNC requesting a special school place. In turn, this will reduce the cost of defending appeals.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS:

1.    If the capital funding required to fund and build the school is not approved: this option would result in the failure of WNC fulfilling its statutory obligation of providing a sufficiency of ASC, SLCN and SLD SEND places in West Northamptonshire in future years. It would result in the requirement to utilise places in increasingly distant and more expensive places within the independent sector, which would place a further strain on the HNB of the DSG and the home to school transport budget, which is a strain on the general fund. If WNC cannot demonstrate that it is able to manage its DSG allocation in a balanced position (or have plans to do so) this would result in intervention by the DfE. This will prevent WNC from addressing issues relating to the timely provision of places in an appropriate setting for pupils in receipt of an education, health and care (EHC) plan. This option was discounted for these reasons.

2.    It might be possible to site the school elsewhere. However, this is likely to be a more expensive option - potentially several million pounds – as there will be a significant capital cost attached to any alternative land. The St John’s Tiffield site will be run on a 125 year lease with no capital costs incurred through a site purchase.

At the Chair’s invitation councillors made the following comments.

·         It was important to know how long the journey time to the school would be for the pupils.

·         There was an increasing need for SEND places across the county.

·         It was queried whether there were plans to broker the school or would it remain within the local authority.

Councillor Wendy Randall then read out a statement on behalf of the West Northants SEND action group.

Councillor Fiona Baker presented the report and noted that there was a huge demand for specialist places and a historic lack of investment in the area. She advised that children currently placed in a setting would not be expected to move to the new school. A recommendation as to the preferred trust to run the school had been put to the Department for Education.

RESOLVED: Cabinet;

a)    Noted that the selection process for the new school involves the Council putting forward a recommendation to the DfE for the preferred trust, following a rigorous selection process.

b)   Noted the linked paper, ‘St John Tiffield property arrangements’ on the use of the St John’s Tiffield Site, St. John’s Road, Tiffield, NN12 8AA for the new school.

c)    Agreed in principle borrowing up to £10,000,000 to make up the shortfall for the cost of building the new school, which is up to £23m, with delegated authority to the s151 officer to amend the capital programme once full feasibility works are completed. Note that the remaining cost of the build will be met through capital grant funding received by the Council.

Note: the estimated building and capital required would be subject to construction cost inflation. This has been estimated at one per cent per month currently. Compounded, this could be as much as 13-14 per cent a year. Delay in construction work will lead to further risk of cost rises.