Agenda item

A report seeking approval for a project that will offer additional places and enhance provision for pupils with additional needs, that are based within the Newbridge Trust.

The Cabinet considered a report of the Executive Director of Children’s Servies that sought approval for a capital project that will offer additional places and enhance provision for pupils with additional needs who are based within the Newbridge Trust. It also sought approval for the allocation of funding from HNPCA and Basic Need Grant towards the scheme.

The submitted report related to a project at Spring Brook Upper School that will enhance existing provision and provide additional provision for pupils with additional needs.  These proposals are now developed sufficiently for costs and proposals to be placed before the Cabinet for a final decision.  This project will create a total of 36 new places in the school for children with additional needs. 

Currently the Local Authority has around £2.8million of Basic Need funding and £9.6million of High Needs Capital Allocation Funding.  It was proposed that where projects will generate additional places these projects will be funded from the HNPCA Grant provision

Spring Brook Upper School is a special school that serves all areas Oldham for children with SEMH and is run by New Bridge Multi Academy Trust. This project will increase access to places for 36 children

Spring Brook Academy is a special school in Oldham that is based across two sites and currently caters for 114 pupils aged between 4-16 years old with a range of Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) difficulties. Spring Brook lower school, which accommodates KS1 & KS2 pupils, shares its site with Lyndhurst Primary School, a mainstream primary academy. The Spring Brook upper school site, which accommodates KS3 pupils, is based in the Failsworth area of Oldham. Spring Brook lower school is approximately a 10-minute drive from the upper school site.

The central project objective for the Trust is how best to bring Spring Brook's lower and upper school pupils together on one site. The lower school and upper school pupils are to be predominantly based and taught in separate areas. The lower school pupils are to be accommodated within a new teaching block with the upper school pupils continuing to be taught within the existing main school building. KS1 pupils will be taught on the ground floor of the new teaching block with KS2 pupils taught on the first floor. Classrooms are to be designed to accommodate a maximum group size of between 8-10 pupils

The total cost of this project is estimated to be in the region of £1,581,199 (a total of £1,739,319 when including 10% contingency) following completion of a RIBA stage 2 report by Spring Brook Academy.  It is proposed that this project is funded by the LA Basic Need and/or HNPCA Grant.

Options/Alternatives considered:

Option 1: To approve the above capital investment for the project listed above to deliver the ambitions of the SEND and Inclusion Strategy 2023-2027.

Option 2: Do not approve the projects and risk not fulfilling the above strategy.

Option 1 was the preferred Option.

Resolved:

1.    That the Cabinet approves the Capital Project, detailed in the submitted report that will offer additional places and enhance provision for pupils with additional needs who are based within the Newbridge Trust.

2.    That the Cabinet approves the allocation of funding from HNPCA and Basic Need Grant towards the scheme, as detailed in the submitted report.