19 June 2019

Dear Parent/Carer Headteacher: Dr R P Petrie BSc PhD Local Authority Consultation on the future of Resourced Provisions

I am writing to inform you of the above consultation on the future of Strategic Resourced Provisions within Cumbria; the consultation documents and request for responses can be found here: https://cumbria.citizenspace.com/cumbria-county-council/resourced-provision-consultation-1/

As you are aware, we are proud at to host a Resourced Provision for students who have varying needs on the Autistic Spectrum. As a truly inclusive school, we value the diversity of our student population and have, through the hard work of our staff, created a school community where everyone is supported and integrated. We do not subscribe to the model of a ‘school within a school’ and our incredible team within our Learning Support department work closely with teachers to ensure that any student who requires support (not just those within the Resourced Provision) are given the help they need to succeed.

We are currently oversubscribed in our Resourced Provision (29 students when our capacity is 24), a situation that reflects the dire need for further places for autism across the county. The proposed consultation acknowledges this shortage but, in our opinion, does not tackle this in the correct way. There is a significant shortfall in the county High Needs Block budget, the funding stream that supports students with SEND. This proposal aims to redress some of that shortfall by creating hubs that will centrally employ staff, thus removing them from being employed by schools such as ours. This central employment is aimed at increasing flexibility of response and also tackling the current practice of paying some schools for so-called ‘ghost places’. These are places in schools with Resourced Provisions that receive funding from the High Needs Block, even though the places are unfilled! Whilst we support the ending of this practice, and acknowledge the difficulties this will present to some schools, restructuring the entire Resourced Provision layout within the county seems a huge overreaction.

Managing finances within education is a challenge for everyone at the moment and, whether you agree with academisation or not, since we converted in 2015, we have had to live within our means. It is absolutely right that public funds should be tightly managed and we would propose the following first steps to remedy any shortfall in the High Needs Block before restructuring:

 Stop funding ‘ghost places’ (potential saving ~£350K) – this will require giving affected schools notice that the funding will stop so that they can deal with staffing issues. As an alternative, repurpose under-utilised Resourced Provisions into specialist autism provisions to meet the needs of the children. We would be happy to support this process and use our expertise to develop other schools.

 Require any Local Authority-maintained schools running an overall deficit to submit a deficit recovery plan that balances their budget within (say) 3 years (potential saving at least £1.5M) and use existing powers to transfer recovered funds into the High Needs Block. Note: there should not be any transfer of existing funding to schools from the main schools’ grant into the High Needs Block as this would result in a further reduction in funding to ALL schools. Academies have to run a balanced budget and are not allowed to run at an overall deficit; it would seem fair to expect the same of maintained schools.

As a result of the proposal that is under consultation, we now have a team of highly-skilled and hugely- experienced staff within Learning Support and our Resourced Provision who face significant uncertainty about their future employment. They have spent their careers working with students and staff to ensure that everyone achieves in our school; for the sake of our students, these are not people we wish to see re-deployed elsewhere. We are therefore very keen to gather your support in ensuring that we can continue to maintain the outstanding support that we currently offer. There are a number of points within the consultation that require further clarity and it is important that we allow the Local Authority to explain things further. In the meantime, we are compiling our response to the consultation and we will make this available on our website.

What can you do to help?

 Download and read the Local Authority consultation documentation (link at the start of this letter);  Attend the public meetings about the consultation - there is one on the 1 July at and another on 15 July at ;  Respond to the consultation. We have attached our draft response to the consultation; please feel free to use this as a basis for your response.

The consultation closes on Friday 19 July.

All of us who believe in inclusive education and who have worked with students with autism know what a superb job the staff in our Resourced Provision do. We all understand the importance of tailoring support to the individual student and the importance of stability and safety to those students with autistic spectrum condition (ASC). This, along with a desire for a fully integrated school community, is what our staff do so well and we cannot see how this proposal improves the support for some of our most vulnerable students.

I will leave the final word to one of our Year 13 students who has received support from our Resourced Provision (SRP) since joining the school in Year 7 and has written to the LA:

“In Year 7 I found it extremely difficult to adapt to secondary school life and without the SRP building for me to go to and feel safe, (there is a sensory room, life skills flat, quiet room, bedroom, changing rooms, classrooms, recreation area, toilets that I felt comfortable using) I know for a fact that without this resource, I wouldn’t be at the level of education (currently taking my A levels and have a conditional offer at University) and have the social/life skills that I do now.

Over time, and with the continued support from the SRP, I have successfully attended mainstream lessons (with support), but with the knowledge that I have the SRP to go to when it isn’t going so well. I have always felt the need for a safe place to go, and this is particularly paramount during exam periods, and feel without the SRP I have no doubt that my behaviour would be deemed unacceptable and may have been permanently excluded…”

I hope that you feel able to support our school over this incredibly important issue. For us, being an inclusive school is something that we live every day; it’s an ethos that runs through our school, not just a word on our letterhead.

Yours sincerely

Dr R P Petrie Headteacher

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