Purpose

To approve Kingsley
Special School Mobile Unit replacement.

 

Content

 

RESOLVED

 

KEY DECISIONS

 

That the Executive:
 

i)       
Approved the Project to replace the
Temporary Mobile Units at Kingsley Special Academy, Kettering with
a permanent classroom block.
 

ii)     
Noted the scheme will be funded via the
High Needs Provision Capital Grant funding received directly from
central government; The budget approval is included within the
Capital Programme Update report to Executive elsewhere on this
agenda.  

 

iii)    
Delegated authority to the Executive
Member for Children, Families and Education and the Executive
Director of Place and Economy in consultation with the Executive
Director of Children’s Services, to authorise all necessary
legal, property and financial agreements to ensure effective
delivery of the scheme.

 

 

 

 

Reasons for Recommendations:
 

?      
Presently, there is a double classroom
mobile unit on the school site. The mobile unit has come to the end
of its life expectancy. The temporary planning approval  for the temporary mobile classrooms
(KET/2012/0608) dated 9th November 2012 has
lapsed and therefore  the removal of the
mobile unit is required. The  temporary
mobile classroom must therefore be removed as to allow it to remain
in situ is a  breach of the planning
permission.

?      
The school is oversubscribed with a
shortfall of teaching spaces and currently does not comply with the
Building Bulletin BB104 Standards Guidelines for Special Schools.
The new build classroom block will provide the necessary teaching
and spaces needed to comply with the BB104. 

?      
There is a deficit of SEND places across
North Northamptonshire currently and will be in the forthcoming
2023/24 academic year. This proposal ensures that there is good
quality permanent capacity at Kingsley Special Academy.

?      
The Council has a statutory obligation to
provide a sufficiency of SEND places across the county, if the
Council cannot provide sufficient places in its maintained or
academy provision in Northamptonshire, then it is required to
utilise far more expensive independent and out of county provisions to meet demand. Places
in independent or out of county provisions which are significantly
more costly than those within the Council’s own
provision.
 
 

 

Alternative
Options Considered:
 

There are three options for
consideration:
 

Option 1.
 Do Nothing.  This is not considered to be a viable option as
this relates to the fulfilment of the Council’s statutory
obligation of providing sufficiency of places its schools’
estate. To allow the unit to remain in situ the Council is in
breach of the existing planning permission.  

 
Option
2. Replace the existing mobile units in a
similar position with similar  footings
but as a modular construction which would be subject to a detailed
review of the impact on the adjoining spaces. This option is not
recommended because temporary  mobile
classrooms provide only a basic educational need for the
school and we are seeking to provide
permanent good quality classrooms which meet our  statutory responsibilities for the longer
term. 

 
Option
3. The preferred  option  is to construct
a new permanent classroom block on the school site. After
consulting with the Planning Authority and the school it is
considered that this preferred solution is the most effective way
of providing the pupil places at Kingsley Special
Academy