Seeking Proposals to Establish a Special Free School

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council: Seeking proposals to establish a Special Free School

March 2019

SECTION ONE: OVERVIEW

1. Summary

The Department for Education (DfE) is working collaboratively with selected Local Authorities to establish new schools that fit within the local authorities’ strategies for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and those requiring alternative provision. This opportunity is intended to identify and meet untapped demand for special and alternative provision free schools as a supplement to LAs’ existing resources. If a strong proposal is received by a trust that both the Local Authority and the Secretary of State wish to take forward, DfE will provide capital funding and start-up grants subject to value for money assessments.

This document sets out the key information regarding the school that Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council will be establishing alongside DfE. Trusts should use the information within this document, alongside the engagement events, to determine whether they would like to apply to open the school, and to base their application on.

2. Key dates

24 July 2018 Special and AP free schools wave is launched – the guidance and criteria for local authorities seeking to establish new special or alternative provision free schools is published.

11 March 2019 Announcement of successful LA bids. Competitions in successful areas subsequently open.

30 September 2019 Deadline for proposers to submit applications in successful areas.

October – Sandwell LA and DfE to evaluate submitted applications and December 2019 interview trusts

To be confirmed Approved applications announced.

3. Contact details and further information

If you would like any further information or would like to discuss your application, please contact:

Name: Moira Tallents Job title: Group Head: Inclusive Learning Email: [email protected] Tel: 0121 569 2777

Name: Melanie Barnett Job title: Group Head: Inclusive Learning Email: [email protected] Tel: 0121 569 2163

If you would like any further information or would like to discuss the site, please contact:

Name: Martyn Roberts Job title: Team Lead Capital and Planning Email: [email protected] Tel: 0121 569 8341

Please find below the contact details of the Regional Schools Commissioner:

RSC: Mr Andrew Warren, RSC’s office: West Midlands Email: [email protected]

4. Sandwell MBC Context and Planning

Sandwell LA is running this competition because it currently has no specific special school that caters for the needs of pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Our current provision includes 97 mainstream primary schools, 10 of which have ASD specific resource bases. All the resource bases are within 'good' or 'outstanding' mainstream schools. There are 4 'good' or 'outstanding' special schools within Sandwell: 1 for pupils with Social, Emotional, Mental and Health (SEMH) difficulties (primary and secondary),1 for pupils with Moderate Learning Difficulties (MLD) and other needs, 2 for pupils with complex and severe learning difficulties (1 primary and 1secondary). The new Special Free school for pupils with ASD would fill a gap in provision. Currently all the primary resource bases have limited capacity and are catering for pupils with an increased level of need. All Sandwell special schools have a large cohort of pupils with ASD and associated difficulties, however they also have limited capacity to provide support for the increased number of children with ASD and MLD. The new special free school would take pupils initially identified either through the Early Years ASD pathway within Inclusion Supports child development centre (2 years – 5 years), mainstream schools and resource bases through the EHCP assessment or annual review processes. Recommendations for the need for enhanced provision will come through specialist assessment by Educational Psychologists and specialist teachers for Complex Communication and Autism (CCAT) that work within all Sandwell schools. Currently mainstream schools have identified that there is a lack of specialist provision places for pupils with ASD and Complex Needs.

Pupil transition into the new school would be supported by the feeder school and Inclusion Support Early Years Team, EPs and CCAT team. The new school would also be supported by these teams through Inclusive Learning time allocation system that is used for all schools and receive allocated services from health and social care. Sandwell currently runs a partially traded model for support services, so school would have the opportunity to purchase more support in addition to their allocation if desired. We would expect the new school to make good links with Autism West Midlands who co-ordinate support for parents of children with ASD.

A special free secondary school has already been approved as part of Wave 11 of the free schools programme by the DfE / ESFA. The new school will open on an adjacent site in September 2021. The proposed primary free special school would be expected to work closely with adjacent secondary free school to ensure a smooth and collaborative transition from Key Stage 2 to 3.

SECTION TWO: THE SCHOOL

The tables below list key details of the school proposed. Your application must be for a school that has these key characteristics. Please note you only need to complete the relevant table depending on the type of school.

Type of school Special Area of SEN provided for Autistic Spectrum Disorder with Moderate (please detail designation Learning Difficulties alongside additional information known about the cohort’s needs and abilities) Which local authorities are Sandwell MBC committed to commissioning places? How many places have been 126 places will be commissioned by Sandwell commissioned and by which MBC alone local authority? Per-pupil revenue funding the £10,000 per place (base funding) plus £12,864 local authority would expect per pupil (top-up funding). All pupils would to pay (if a range of rates, receive the same level of top-up funding as this is please explain and detail the a standing agreement with all our specialist rates per pupil, including provision. estimates for how many of the cohort will be in each band) Age range 5 to 11 Gender (Boys/Girls/Co- Co-educational educational) Total number of proposed full 126 time equivalent places (once school is at full capacity – this should include 16-19 places but not nursery) Type of placements offered Full-time (e.g. full time, short term, part time) Number of nursery places, if 0 applicable Number of 16-19 places, if 0 applicable

Any planned outreach, Sandwell consists of six town areas. There is training and/or reintegration currently no special school provision for ASD with support (including details of MLD within the three towns that form the northern funding that will be made half of Sandwell. There is no planned outreach, available to support the training and / or reintegration support planned school with this) since the Authority wishes to see the school establish itself within the area, with a view to encouraging the new school provider to offer outreach and training. For primary aged ASD children (with MLD) it is not envisaged that reintegration support would be considered relevant. The table below details the number of places that the local authority proposes for each year group at the point of opening until the school is full.

Year of +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 opening

0 0 0 0 0 0 Nursery 0

18 18 18 18 18 18 18 Reception

Key stage 1 0 18 36 36 36 36 36 (Y1-2)

Key stage 2 0 0 0 18 36 54 72 (Y3-6)

Key stage 3 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a (Y7-9)

Key stage 4 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a (Y10-11)

16-19: n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a commissioner referred

18 36 54 72 90 108 126 Totals

SECTION THREE: RATIONALE AND CONTEXT FOR THE SCHOOL This section describes the rationale and the context in which the new school will operate.

At present we have 166 young people in our special schools that have a diagnosis of ASD as well as a further 39 in an out of borough special school. There are 100 pupils placed in mainstream resource bases. There is very little capacity within our current specialist provisions to provide the additional places required to meet the needs of pupils with ASD and MLD.

The local authority has seen a year on year growth of 0.1% since 2014 of pupils requiring an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) in schools - an additional 390 pupils since 2014. In line with the trend experienced in the mainstream sector, we expect this figure to continue to rise with the growth of the general school population. There has also been an 18.5% increase in primary aged children with EHCP’s being diagnosed with ASD, with a further 105 children awaiting diagnosis. A Specialist Free secondary school for ASD pupils has been agreed during Wave 11 however there is a need for a primary equivalent as current specialist provision is already near to capacity.

The places will be filled from the population that would currently be placed in out of borough specialist schools, our LA special schools and resource provisions. This would relieve current pressures on LA special schools as places would become available for children with other complex needs. It would also relieve pressures on schools with resources bases as the more complex students with ASD + MLD could be accommodated in special schools, leaving those who are more likely to make academic progress in a mainstream school. Resource provisions have seen a dramatic increase in the level of need of children they are placing and due to this 2 schools have recently decided to close their provision.

Admission into the school would follow statutory processes for pupils with EHC Plans. An agreement to seek a place at the school will be made at Provision Panel held within Inclusive Learning Services following an assessment / reassessment of needs and provision. Parents and school will be consulted following statutory time-lines.

The outcomes we would expect from providing a new special school for pupils with ASD would be an increase in the quality of specialist provision available and therefore an increase in individual pupils achieving their potential. The key performance indicator for the school would be that all children are making progress towards their individualised outcomes as specified on their EHC Plans from their baseline assessment. These outcomes would include communication and interaction, independence and learning. This would be monitored through annual review, as well as end of key stage assessment for those children currently working above P4.

The aim of all specialist provision in Sandwell is to prepare the children for adult life by supporting independence and teaching the skills needed to be part of their community and gain meaningful employment. This preparation starts in the early years and gathers momentum as the pupils grow older. We would expect the new special school to work collaboratively with the other special schools in the area, including the new Secondary ASD school. The new school would be part of a strategic plan to improve provision for pupils with ASD through working closely with our current resource bases to share good practice and to be part of the ASD resource base steering group. They will be expected to work closely with the LA's Complex Communication and Autism Team and as such offer training / outreach to identified mainstream schools that require additional support. The risks of opening a new special school for pupils with ASD would be that it will increase the proportion of children educated in specialist settings within Sandwell. Whilst this is a concern, Sandwell is a very inclusive local authority, currently we have only 0.5% of our SEND population allocated to Special Free School places compared to 9% nationally and 11.3% regionally. An increase in this sector would bring us more in line with our neighbours.

Currently there are 40 pupils within Nursery and Reception classes who have been referred for a multi-agency assessment of autism, with a further 105 pupils from Year. 1 to Year. 6. As previously stated, the LA has seen a significant increase in the identification of pupils with Autism with MLD and have put in place early support through the CLASS (Communication, Language, Autism and Social Skills) Strategy within private day care and nursery settings. This is further supported by the introduction of a specific multi-agency early years diagnostic pathway and early years intervention funding to support pupils in their settings. Many of these children will require specialist provision as they enter formal schooling.

The LA would reduce the use of out-of-borough placements over time and recycle monies to cover the cost of the additional placements in the special free school. The new special school would also replace planned further development of resource bases within mainstream schools, thus recycling the places so limiting the overall increase and pressure on the High Needs Block.

SECTION FOUR: THE PROPOSED LOCATION AND SITE

This section describes the provisional site.

Full address and full Site of former The Phoenix Collegiate North postcode Campus, Friar Park Road, Wednesbury, WS10 0JS Size of site To be determined upon conclusion of ESFA final design option for the approved Wave 11 secondary special free school adjacent to the site.

Further details on site (for The freehold interest in the site is held by The example, current use/your Phoenix Collegiate. reasons for choosing it/further developments (e.g. The school will shortly transfer a proportion of the housing) planned for area land to Forward Education Trust, the approved sponsor for a new secondary special school to be built on the site. Once the boundary to the new school is determined the site area for the proposed primary special school can be confirmed.

The school site and buildings have remained vacant for a number of years. The ESFA propose to demolish and clear the site in early 2020.

The Governing Board of Phoenix Collegiate are exploring options for redevelopment of land to the immediate north of the site (planning reference no. DC/19/62758 – further details can be found at: https://webcaps.sandwell.gov.uk/publicaccess/)

A long term plan is being developed by the Council, with support from the West Midlands Combined Authority, to bring forward the redevelopment of further vacant land to the east of the site fronting Friar Park Road. Up to 700 new houses are planned.