Hackney mayor hints at funding for ‘at least one’ new special school

Mayor of Hackney Caroline Woodley

Hackney’s mayor has suggested the council could create ‘at least one’ more special school from buildings left empty as a result of its controversial plans to close several primaries.

At a meeting of the Children and Young Person’s scrutiny commission last week, Mayor Caroline Woodley said “clearly vacant properties”, including from the schools estate, were an opportunity for the council to further its special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) offering.

“We’ve got empty buildings and potentially can look at the Hackney education estate as well, because of amalgamations that we’re all having to deal with at the moment, as painful as it is,” she said.

If the council can use its assets, “[it] could create at least one additional special school potentially, depending on capital funding coming down the line and if we can convince ourselves it’s good value for money and the right thing to do,” Mayor Woodley added.

The suggestion comes after last month’s announcement that the council plans to shut four primary schools.

Sir Thomas Abney, St Dominic’s, St Mary’s and Oldhill schools are earmarked for full closure or amalgamation (mergers) due to falling pupil rolls and budget pressures.

Parents and teachers of St Thomas Abney are particularly angry at the decision given the school’s recognition for its SEND resourcing.

At last month’s cabinet meeting, Lisa Neidich, co-chair of governors at the school, suggested that the closure and ensuing layoffs would hinder the council’s strategy to support pupils with special needs.

She said: “Sir Thomas Abney has a long-established speech and language resource unit. The management of the school have the expertise, as well as the teachers, speech and language therapists, et cetera.

“We’ve been told that all staff are going to be made redundant [and will] have to reapply for jobs. Why would they not go outside of Hackney if they’re treated like that?”

At the meeting, Mayor Woodley said the council was committed to that provision continuing “at the site of Sir Thomas Abney” but that management would see “difficult” changes.

The plans are under consultation until 19 November, during which the public can put forward their views.

The decision to close or merge four schools follows the recent shutdown of four other establishments in the borough.

De Beauvoir and Randal Cremer schools closed their doors on 31 August this year.

Two mergers saw Baden Powell pupils transferred to Nightingale Primary, while Colvestone schoolchildren were given places at Princess May Primary.

Mayor Woodley’s response did not clarify which vacant buildings could potentially be used to create an additional special school, or whether these would be from the schools that closed this year or the proposed shutdowns currently under consultation.

Over the last two years, the number of Hackney children and young people with an educational health and care plan (EHCP) has increased by 18.5 per cent.

ECHPs are available to children and young people up to the age of 25 who need more help than is provided by schools’ basic special needs support.

The council has pledged to deliver an extra 78 school places for SEND.

During the scrutiny meeting, Mayor Woodley admitted that the Town Hall’s original graduated response, published in 2021, had not delivered in the way the council had hoped.

“When consulting with stakeholders in developing [the strategy], families told us they wanted to see more supported and intervention offered before educational health and care planning had begun.”

The Mayor also said the council was watching the new government’s budget decisions “very closely” to see whether the SEND alternative provision improvement plan will be implemented in its current form.

Analysis from the Institute for Public Policy Research this summer revealed that children with SEND, along with Black children and pupils on free school meals, are among those “most likely” to be permanently excluded.