Independent investigation ordered as Brighton’s oldest school edges towards closure

An independent investigation is due to look into what went wrong at Brighton’s oldest school as senior councillors discussed a proposal to close it.

The investigation was announced as parents, staff and supporters asked Brighton and Hove City Council’s cabinet to come up with a recovery plan for Middle Street Primary School – not a closure plan.

It was not a school that had failed, one councillor said, but a school that was failed.

The Labour deputy leader of the council, Jacob Taylor, said that the details of the independent review, such as who would lead the investigation, had yet to be finalised.

Councillor Taylor praised the “special character” of Middle Street but said that the school’s financial deficit and falling pupil numbers had meant that the school was no longer viable.

He also accepted that parents, staff and others had raised concerns about safeguarding and leadership matters and the council’s own responsibilities in relation to the school.

Given these concerns, it was appropriate to commission a “lessons learnt” report to try to prevent the same sorts of problems affecting any other local schools in the same way.

Councillor Taylor announced the investigation in response to a question from the former chair of governors Oli Sharpe.

Mr Sharpe asked: “It concerns me greatly that the report (on the proposed closure of the school) fails to capture the temporary nature of the recent problems at Middle Street School, blaming ‘governance and finance’ rather than the widely known breakdown in relations between the previous senior leadership team and the school community.

“The phrase ‘senior leadership’ does not appear once. Nor does the report mention that pupil numbers had been consistently around 190 (90 per cent of the published admission number) for years, making the school financially viable compared to neighbouring schools.

“It is only the recent complex HR issues and loss of community trust that led to pupil numbers dropping to 141 and then 71 after rumours of closure circulated.

“With a PAN (published admission number) of 15, a new senior leadership team and a 10-year plan to pay off the deficit, this much-loved school would be viable. Why are these details and options not in the report to council?”

Green councillor Ellen McLeay said that a culture of bullying, and a high staff turnover, had led to many parents taking their children out of the school.

Councillor McLeay said: “There were failings which inevitably impacted upon pupil numbers and the suspension of staff and the need for spend on teaching cover which all resulted in the unsustainable deficit.

“If warning signs had been heeded earlier, the school would have had longer to become viable.”

She welcomed the investigation and said that the situation should never happen again.

Councillor Taylor told the council’s cabinet that the council had responded to concerns, not least by taking the rare step of appointing an interim executive board (IEB), a move that was signed off by the government’s Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson.

But there were limits to what the council and education officials could do – a point underlined by the Labour leader of the council, Bella Sankey.

Councillor Taylor said that it would be highly unusual to have a 10-year recovery plan to resolve a budget deficit – understood to be in excess of £400,000.

He said that there were national issues with funding but added that many schools in Brighton and Hove were coping.

And he also said that the IEB, which took over last June, had given serious consideration to joining forces with another school or other schools to form a federation.

But the dramatic drop in pupil numbers from December to the start of the half-term holiday in the middle of last month had made the school unviable.

One parent, John Dow, led a deputation to the council’s cabinet meeting at Hove Town Hall, saying that the council expected 900 homes a year to be built in Brighton and Hove, bringing more families into the centre.

Mr Dow said: “Closing Middle Street would not just affect today’s pupils, it would risk becoming a short-sighted planning decision.

“You’ll be closing the only primary school in the heart of the city at the very moment the city is planning to bring more families to live here.”

He called for a three-year recovery plan.

Green councillor Sue Shanks spoke on behalf of another group of parents and called for an independent external investigation

She said that the school’s finances had taken a hit because of the large number of expensive agency staff employed, increasing the school deficit from £28,000 to £232,000 in three years.

Councillor Shanks said: “We are also demanding that the council commits to keeping Middle Street open and gives this community the second chance it deserves.

“This is not a school that failed. It is a school that was failed. It must never happen again.”

Another deputation led by Ruth Swift-Wood sought assurances that children would be supported and tracked as they moved to new schools – and Councillor Taylor said that this would happen.

Councillor Taylor said: “The proposed closure of a school is always sad, whatever the overall context.

“As councillors we don’t sit here and simply rubber-stamp these proposals or think about them as purely numbers on a spreadsheet.

“We think carefully about these decisions and will only proceed with something if we genuinely believe that it’s in the best interest of the city.”

He hoped that the children remaining at the school would have a “joyful” final year, particularly the year 6 pupils before they moved on to secondary school.

Councillor Sankey said: “Making decisions around school closure I think is one of the hardest things that councillors are ever asked to do.

“All of us deeply appreciate that schools are so much more than buildings. They are the bedrock of our communities where we choose to educate our children.”

The council’s cabinet agreed to start the formal process that is expected to end with the closure of Middle Street Primary School on Monday 31 August.

The next step will be the publication of a statutory notice, triggering a four-week period for representations from Wednesday 8 April to Sunday 5 May. The responses are due to be considered in May.