Issue details

Proposed decision –The Cabinet Member for Education and Skills:

1. AGREE to issue a Public Notice to permanently remove residential provision at Broomhill Bank School North (Hextable) and following a representation period of four weeks with no substantive objections received, implement the decision

2. DELEGATE authority to the Corporate Director of Children, Young People and Education to Issue a Public Notice

3. DELEGATE authority for the Corporate Director of Children, Young People and Education, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills to take relevant actions including but not limited to entering into relevant contracts or other legal agreements as required, to implement the decision, subject to no new substantive objections received during the notice period

Reason for the decision

Kent County Council (KCC) as the Local Authority (LA) has a commitment to provide education, including Special School placements for children and young people within their locality, so that they can remain with their families. This follows national direction outlined in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and the Families First Partnership Programme.

The proposal to permanently remove residential provision at Broomhill Bank School North (Hextable), is driven by an assessment by KCC of the school’s residential provision and need in the local area. This assessment has indicated that there is no longer a requirement for KCC to continue to commission residential placements at Broomhill Bank School North (Hextable).

Up to, and including this academic year, placements in Broomhill Bank North (Hextable) residential provision have been for various reasons and not based on one prescribed set of criteria. Some of these reasons include:

·         Distance from home to school

·         Parental requests for placement (not linked to Social Care Assessment)

·         Different placement approaches from other LAs

KCC school placement decisions now focus on meeting a young person’s needs in a local provision, and where appropriate, those young people are supported by other services such as Social Care in line with their Education Health and Care Plan.

The approach most commonly employed now when placing children and young people in specialist residential provision is that the young person would have statutory care involvement, and the placement is made to meet care needs where local day specialist provision is not an option. This means that the cost of such placements is shared across Education and Social Care.

Based on the approach described above, the students who have previously been placed in residential provision at Broomhill Bank North (Hextable) would no longer meet the criteria for a residential placement. This would be in line with the national direction outlined in the Families First Partnership Programme.

Background – Provide brief additional context

Broomhill Bank School is a co-educational Foundation Special School for students aged 11-19 who have communication and interaction difficulties associated with autism and speech, language and communication needs. Following an inspection that took place in October 2023, Ofsted deemed Broomhill Bank School to be a ‘GOOD’ school. SinceSeptember 2015 Broomhill Bank School North (Hextable) has offered residential provision. Following an inspection that took place in November 2024, Ofsted deemed this provision to be ‘OUTSTANDING’.

However, as explained above, the students who have previously been placed in residential provision at Broomhill Bank North (Hextable) would no longer meet the criteria for a residential placement. As such, it has been identified that there is not the requirement, or need, for KCC to continue tocommission residential placements at Broomhill Bank School North (Hextable). This has been discussed with the Executive Headteacher of the school.

For this reason, it is the intention that the residential provision will close following the departure of the students who are currently using the provision, all of whom are expected to leave the school at the end of this academic year. Therefore, the Broomhill Bank School Senior Leadership Team and Governing Body have been working with KCC Officers to ensure that provision for the remaining residential students would not be adversely affected up to their leaving date.

KCC are proposing that the process for statutory closure of the provision is progressed, with an expected closure date from 1 September 2025.

Options (other options considered but discarded)

Option 1: Do Nothing

Retain the residential provision, despite the placements not being made in line with the approach described above. This is not a viable option as this goes against KCC’s aspiration to ensure children and young people’s needs are met in a local provision with support from other services such as Social Care in line with their Education Health and Care Plan, where appropriate.

Option 2: Change the Admissions Criteria

Retain the residential provision but change the admissions criteria for the students who would receive placements at Broomhill Bank School North (Hextable) to match the approach described above. Whilst this appears to be reasonable alternative, due to the needs of the young people who are placed at Broomhill Bank School North (Hextable), the number who would meet that criteria would be minimal, and therefore adversely affect the financial viability of the provision.

How the proposed decision supports the Framing Kent's Future - Our Council Strategy 2022-2026

The 'Securing Kent's Future' strategy outlines the measures that KCC intend to take to ensure that Kent remains financially stable, now and long into the future. It describes the statutory priorities.

This proposed decision supports Priority 1 of Framing Kent’s Future-Our Council Strategy 2022-2026:

·         Priority 1: Levelling Up Kent – It will help maintain KCC’s strategic role in supporting schools in Kent to deliver accessible, high quality education provision for all families.

How the proposed decision supports Securing Kent’s Future 2022-2026: Securing Kents Future - Budget Recovery Strategy.pdf

This proposed decision is compliant with Objective 1 of Securing Kent’s Future, KCC as the LA proposes to remove the Residential Provision at Broomhill Bank School North (Hextable).This proposal is necessary for KCC to continue to deliver the statutory duty, in a cost-effective way, in line with the guidelines described in the Securing Kent's Future 2022-2026 strategy.

Financial Implications

Revenue funding for special school places is met from the High Needs Block of the Dedicated Schools Grant, a specific ring-fenced grant, provided by the Department of Education. The High Needs Block is overspent by c17% and the Council is part of the Safety Valve Programme where central government are providing additional funding to help pay off the accumulated deficit created from this historic overspend (since 2018-19), on the condition the Council puts in place plans to achieve best value for money under the current statutory arrangements with an aim to return to an in-year breakeven position in future years.

Ensuring we meet children’s needs more locally where possible, and reducing our dependency on residential special school provision, by only retaining our residential provision for children who are more likely to have a statutory care involvement, is part of our savings strategy to reduce spending on the High Needs Block. By permanently removing residential provision at Broomhill Bank School North (Hextable) it would save the authority approximately £40,000 per place.

A residential weekday place at Broomhill Bank School North (Hextable) costs nearly £62,000 for each student per academic year, and an assessment by KCC has identified that there is no longer a requirement or need for KCC to continue to commission residential placements at Broomhill Bank School North (Hextable). Day placements at Broomhill Bank School North (Hextable) are on average £20,500 for 2025/26.

From 1 September 2025, all students attending the school will be day students and to continue to run the residential offer at Broomhill Bank costs a minimum of £480,000 a year to maintain.

There may be one off redundancy costs associated with this proposal, but work is ongoing with the school to ensure these costs are kept to a minimum through working with the affected staff to identify alternative employment opportunities. In the first instance the schools would ordinarily be expected to fund these costs. However, if this is deemed unaffordable, funding would be made available through the school redundancy fund (paid by the Council but funded from school contributions). Due to the exceptional nature of this proposal, KCC has agreed to meet the one-off redundancy costs. At the time of drafting this report the potential costs are anticipated to be less than £20,000.

The Local Authority is responsible for funding home to school transport for eligible children. By removing the residential offer may increase home to school transport costs to the authority if children are eligible for local authority funded travel to school, as they would then be travelling to and from school on a daily basis. By continuing to pursue our aim to meet children’s needs as locally as possible, should keep these extra costs to a minimum, by securing more efficient transport. The average cost of transporting an eligible child with SEN to school is £8,500 per year, this cost would be met from the Home to School Transport Budget.

There are no direct capital implications arising from this proposal. The buildings will be repurposed to support the educational delivery for incoming Year 7 students with a wider dimension of need.

Legal Implications

Under the Children and Families Act 2014 KCC has a duty ‘to support the child and his or her parent, or the young person, in order to facilitate the development of the child or young person and to help him or her achieve the best possible educational and other outcomes’. By ensuring we have appropriate provision as locally as possible, we are delivering on our obligation in accordance with this legislation.

Local Authorities need to deliver their statutory duties and be aware of non-statutory guidance and advice which relate to children and young people SEN. These are:

·         Department for Education-Making significant changes to an academy 2024: non-statutory guidance on collaborative school place planning and making organisational changes to academies.

·         The SEND Code of Practice places requirements on Local Authorities to: provide access to advice from a suitably qualified person as part of the EHCP process and subsequent “assess, plan, do, review” cycles, and make appropriate provision for those with an EHC plan in the 0-25 range.

·         Sufficiency Duties: KCC is under a statutory duty to contribute towards the spiritual, moral, mental and physical development of the community by securing that efficient primary education and secondary education are available to meet the needs of the population of their area: section 13 of the Education Act 1996 (“the 1996 Act”).

·         KCC must ensure that its education functions are exercised by the authority with a view to promoting high standards, ensuring fair access to opportunity for education and training, and promoting the fulfilment of learning potential by every person under the age of 20 and those over the age of 20 and for whom an EHC Plan is maintained: section 13A. By section 14, KCC must secure that sufficient schools for providing primary and secondary education are available for their area, defined as being sufficient in number, character and equipment to provide for all pupils the opportunity of appropriate education.

·         Under section 27 of the Children and Families Act 2014 (“the 2014 Act”), KCC is under a duty to keep under review the educational provision, training provision and social care provision made in its area (and outside it) for children and young people who have special educational needs or a disability. KCC must consider the extent to which its provision is sufficient to meet the educational needs, training needs and social care needs of the children and young people concerned.

·         Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and the Families First Partnership Programme: a direction nationally aimed to improve children’s wellbeing and support families in need. The Bill includes Local Authorities commitment to provide education, including Special School placement, within a child and young person’s locality, so that children and young people can remain with their families.

All individual proposals to either establish new, expand current or cease current provision will be required to go through the statutory process under the School Organisation (Prescribed Alterations to Maintained Schools) (England) Regulations 2013 and Making Significant Changes to an Academy (non-statutory guidance on collaborative school place planning, October 2024). As part of this process, a public consultation was undertaken ahead of presentation of the proposal to CYPE Cabinet Committee. Should the Cabinet Member agree to the permanent removal of residential provision at Broomhill Bank School North (Hextable), a Public Notice will be issued for a period of 4 weeks.