Local Authoritycommissioned Special Free Schools Seeking Proposals to Establish a Special

Local authoritycommissioned Special free schools Seeking proposals to establish a Special free school

Essex County Council

July2017

Overview

Local authorities play a key role in placing pupils with statements or Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans, so it is important that they help shape the range of provision in their area. Previously, proposals to establish special free schools have only been taken forward in consultation with local authorities. The Department for Education(DfE)has recently provided a further opportunity for local authorities themselves to identify where a new special free school would benefit their area, inform their Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC), and seek proposals for the new school they want. This opportunity is intended to identify and meet untapped demand for special free schools as a supplement to LA’s existing resources. If a strong proposal is received that both the local authority and the Secretary of State wish to take forward the (DfE) will provide capital funding and start-up grants subject to value for money assessments.

Information for proposer groups

Proposed timeline

The competition closes at mid-day on 24th November 2017

Further Information

Essex County Council (ECC) will hold two information events for potential sponsors, the dates to be advised.

At the information events, potential sponsors will meet the key personnel. A presentation will be given on the Essex context, the type of school ECC is looking for and our expectations of the successful sponsor. We will share the education vision of ECC and our special school partners. A Council officer will speak about the site which is being made available for the school.

There will be an opportunity to ask questions at a Q&A session after the presentations.

An information pack will be given out at the event to all interested organisations. This will contain information about the county and Essex special schools, demand for places, the banding structure for top up fees, the site and other relevant data.

All potential sponsors can ask questions of Essex Officers on the day and the responses will be made available to all.

A copy of the Information pack will be sent to any interested sponsors who are unable to attend either of the information events.

To book a place at the information event please contact Angela St John or Telephone 0333 0322 232.

For further information on SEND please contact Ralph Holloway

Essex falls within the Regional Schools Commissioner for the East of England and North East London Region

The Regional Schools Commissioner is Dr Tim Coulson

RSC’s office:

Email:

Section 1 - THE SCHOOL

This secton lists keydetails of the school required in Essex. Your application to become a sponsor must be for a school with the key characteristics set out below.

This special Free School is part of a wider programme of SEND development in Essex. The programme was developed in consultation with the Essex Schools Forum and the Essex Special School Education Trust (ESSET) in response to a current and projected shortfall of SEND places in the county. All of the places in the SEND development programme will be commissioned by Essex. The development programme includes the expansion of Essex community special schools and the creation of specially resourced provision for children and young people with ASD and SEMH issues in mainstream schools and academies. In addition, ECC has supported 3 special Free School applications to date and two of the three applications have been approved.The third application is expected to be submitted to the DfE for consideration in the near future.

The table below details the number of places that the local authority anticipates for each year group at the point of opening until the school is full. However, we understand that there may be some vertical grouping and variation in class size as the schools fills up.

Section 2 - THE PROPOSED LOCATION AND SITE

Essex County Council has identified a site for the new school and the Council has agreed in principle to make it available to a successful bidder on a long lease at a peppercorn rent. Formal Council approval will be sought at a later date.

This section describes the provisional site.

• Address and postcode Fox Crescent, Chelmsford, CM1 2BL
• Size of siteApprox 1.2 ha
• Current use including planning designation (if known)The potential site is part of a larger land holding which was previously that of St Peter’s College (secondary school) which closed in 2011. It is designated for Education Use in the Local Plan. A draft Planning Brief prepared by the LPA has been widely consulted on and the LPA Cabinet will make a decision on formal adoption of the Planning Brief on 13th July 2017. The draft Planning Brief includes the allocation of part of the site for two new special schools in addition to the existing Thriftwood College. The special Free School which is the subject of this document is one of the two schools.
• Estimated date the site would be available for works to commence The site is currently held vacant. However, there is no road frontage. If works for the school are to commence prior to disposal and development of the adjacent land, then access infrastructure works will be required as part of the school project together with the provision of attenuation ponds for drainage which may be outside the school site boundary.
• Tenure upon which the site will be made available (if agreed) 125 years’ academy lease on a peppercorn rent. Contribution to shared infrastructure and facilities through some form of joint use/management agreement is likely to be required.
• If the site is co-located with another school,how will shared access work?The intention of ECC is that two special Free Schools will be co-located on the site. As the design and construction of Free Schools is managed by the Education Funding Agency, they will no doubt manage access to each school appropriately.
• Building specifications and high-level design plans ECC has carried out a desktop exercise to confirm that the area of the site identified can accommodate 2 special Free Schools. Potential access issues if the development takes place ahead of the rest of the site have been identified above.

Section 3 – RATIONALE AND CONTEXT FOR THE SCHOOL

This section describes the rationale and the context in which the new school will operate.

Section 4 – VIABILITY OF THE NEW SPECIAL SCHOOL

Section 5 – PUPIL DATA -TRENDS IN SPECIALIST PROVISION FOR ALL CHILDREN WITH EHC PLANS

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