Date published: 2024-09-02 | Category: Schools, Colleges and Learning
Proposals to approve £6.1million funding to open a new special school on the site of a former council adult extra care home in Keynsham have been set out.
If approved more detailed work would start to develop a school that would meet the needs of young people aged 11-17 with highly complex needs rather than placing pupils in schools out of the local area away from their families and friends.
A single member decision report before Councillor Paul May, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, seeks approval to repurpose Charlton House into a small residential and day school.
It also seeks approval to invest £6.1m High Needs Provision Capital Grant funding to remodel Charlton House to accommodate the young people.
Bath & North East Somerset Council wants to open the new provision to provide for one of the most vulnerable cohorts of young people whose needs cannot be met within any existing local provision. All have Education, Health and Care Plans and high levels of need that means they are placed in specialist provision outside B&NES.
This means that the young people are not given the chance to be part of their local community, accessing education, social interactions or employment opportunities.
Councillor Paul May said: “I welcome this report and will consider the recommendations before me carefully. The council’s purpose is to improve people’s lives and this proposal would see the life outcomes for young people, and their families, much improved with the opportunity of local education with a residential element for those in care.
“Opening our own provision and commissioning a Single/Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) to run also provides an opportunity to keep placement costs at a much lower rate than currently being charged by the independent sector and therefore would bring considerable savings, including a reduction in transport costs, to the council.”
The SMD report says the proposed school would accommodate 12 residential places and an additional 18 day places, totalling 30 placements. The provision would cater for young people aged 11 -17 with complex special educational needs in the area of autism with social, emotional and mental health difficulties.
Currently the average cost of an out-of-county day placement at an Independent Special school stands at £96k. The cost of residential SEND placements currently stands at £318k.
This project would result in estimated savings to the council of £2,171,075 (education and transport) and £2,043,859 (residential) per annum.
The transport saving applied to education savings is based on a journey of around 30 miles each way at an approximate cost of £15k for day placements and £3,000 for 38-week residential placements.
Charlton House is attached to Hawthorn Court in Keynsham. Hawthorn Court is an adult care home providing extra care housing for older people. Charlton House is no longer used as a care home and is currently empty. Hawthorn Court will continue to provide housing for older people.
The required remodelling, adaptations and refurbishment of Charlton House to enable the building to be repurposed and used as a residential and day special school has been investigated and a feasibility study carried out. The feasibility study indicates that the building could be converted with costs estimated at £6.1m.
The project would include works to ensure that Charlton House and Hawthorn Court have separate access, security and landscaping to outside areas.
Currently Education (SEND) and Education Commissioning has worked with the DfE to prepare a specification for the running of the school. The proposal is that this will be published both by B&NES and the DfE requesting that Singe/lMulti-Academy Trusts (MATs) complete a full application to run the education side of the provision.
If the recommendations are approved an open event will be held at Charlton House where plans and proposals will be shared with neighbours, stakeholders, councillors, prior to a planning application being submitted.
Feedback would be included in the full planning application. There would be a full consultation at the planning stage of the development as per the usual planning process. A market event is also proposed for any Academy Trusts that are interested in submitting bids to run the new school.
The council was given the opportunity to bid for additional funds through the Safety Valve project and was successful in securing £4m capital funding for a new residential school. In addition, as part of the bid application B&NES also committed £2m of existing High Needs Provisional Capital Allocation grant to the project. The feasibility study estimates that the total cost will be £6.1m; there is identified budget sufficient to cover the costs of this project.
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