Senior councillors are expected to start the process of closing a special school in Brighton at the first meeting of the new cabinet next week.
Brighton and Hove City Council said: “Councillors will decide whether to go ahead with a statutory consultation on the proposed closure of Homewood College.”
The consultation is the first formal chance for the public to have their say about the proposed closure which follows a series of poor Ofsted reports.
The council said: “Homewood College is a small specialist school for secondary pupils with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs.
“The school was rated ‘inadequate’ following an Ofsted inspection in December 2021.
“It has received four monitoring visits since and despite the efforts of school leaders, staff and the council, the school has not made sufficient improvement and has remained ‘inadequate’.
“The school has also been subject to an ‘academy order’ since February 2022 but no academy trust has been identified to sponsor the school.”
The council has stopped placing children at Homewood College and is finding other places for existing pupils.
The result is that the council-run special school is not expected to have any pupils at the start of the new school year in September.
The council said: “Earlier this year, the council consulted with parents and carers of pupils at Homewood College and school staff about proposals to stop admissions to the school and find alternative educational placements for the pupils currently attending.
“Parents and carers have been fully involved in planning alternative arrangements for their children.
“The council is committed to ensuring the educational needs of every child on roll at Homewood are fully considered.
“No further places have been commissioned at the school from September 2024.
“Pupils who are currently on roll at the school will be moved to more appropriate SEMH provision in line with their needs. Parents and carers are fully involved in this process.
“Homewood College is expected to have no pupils attending from September and the proposal going to cabinet for approval is to begin the formal process to close the school by the end of December 2024.
“If agreed by councillors, the first stage of the statutory process on the proposed closure of Homewood College will begin with a formal consultation which starts on Monday 8 July and will run until Thursday 5 September.
Close it rather than fix it when there are more youngsters with MH issues than ever before?
Now there’s a caring cabinet council. What is the site worth?
What you are insinuating can’t actually happen, Barry.
Do tell the full story here Benjy boy. We are all waiting.
Lottery funding ?
Perhaps read the report going to cabinet next week. It’s available on the council website.
Get yourself a nice cuppa and pack of custard creams and start reading,
Let’s fill in some of the gaps from this article
and let’s talk about The Beckmead Academy Trust who have escaped any mention at all in this fiasco.
Homewood College was already making significant improvements when The Beckmead Academy Trust were brought in by the Regional Schools Commissioner to support the school in November last year.
The support came with a lump of money handed to Beckmead (rumoured to be around £500,000?) but despite the cash injection those improvements disappeared within just weeks. Under the Beckmead support staff were left feeling disspirited, professionally compromised, concerned for pupils, undervalued and at increased risk of harm themselves.
A collective grievance was brought by staff in February or March which was handed to the Board of Governors. Issues raised within it related to pupil safeguarding, health and safety and staff wellbeing.
Having read the grievance the governors responded in what must have been the only way they felt that they could, by all resigning together.
Another Board of Governors were then cobbled together, who are many months later still currently carrying out their own investigation, but by now the school is only a few weeks away from closing.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that nobody has come out of this very well as all the staff are losing their jobs and the learners will need to be placed into alternative provision. The Beckmead Academy Trust have killed off the roots of growth and buried Homewood with it.
But it’s actually somehow more quids in for The Beckmead Academy Trust. For reasons unclear, they have since been rewarded by BHCC with yet another contract, this time to run the brand new provision to help replace the last place they “supported” all the way to complaints, safeguarding concerns, grievances (all unresolved) and indisputed closure.
Will The Beckmead Academy Trust be transferring those staff from Homewood to their new provision? Not a chance, but the Headteacher has been telling the staff for weeks about his lovely role leading the new school.
Weeks away from being handed their P45s, this has all gone down like the proverbial bucket of sick with the staff, some of whom have worked at the school tirelessly for many years and understandably feel that they have been hung out to dry.
Typical short-sightedness from BHCC. Just like closing the nursery in the old North Road baths & St Bartholomew’s school. Promising new homes yet no education provision. How about a bit of joined up thinking and move the nursery to St Barts especially when the Government is supposedly extending childcare? Lot handier and accessable than Tarnerland!
You might want to read this report.
https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2024/06/19/council-criticised-over-inaction-to-reduce-school-places/