Purpose

Oak Grove College is a secondary special school in
Worthing offering generic Special Educational Needs and
Disabilities (SEND) provision for children and young people aged
between 11 and 19. There is a need to increase the number of places
at the College and a feasibility study and initial design work has
been undertaken to enable this increase by the establishment of a
satellite provision to Oak Grove on another site owned by the
County Council. The study has illustrated how the building and site
at The Pines, Worthing, if established as a satellite site, could
expand the pupil places for Oak Grove by up to 60 taking the
current planned places from 278 to 338.
 
An
initial consultation was launched in accordance with
Department for Education (DfE)
guidance to seek views
on the proposal to create a satellite site for Oak Grove College.
The consultation ran during April and May and views and comments
have been collated from interested parties.  Details of the consultation and the feedback
received are set out in section 4 of this report.
 
The DfE guidance sets out the stages of the process
that should be undertaken when considering expanding, by
establishing a satellite site to a school.  Having completed the first stage, the initial
consultation, the Cabinet Member is now asked to consider the
feedback received and consider whether to approve the progression
of the proposal to the next stage of the process –
publication of statutory notices.
 
Adaptations would be required to The Pines to enable
creation of the satellite site; therefore, approval is also sought
for allocating the capital funding required to finalise the design
and enable delivery of the satellite site, should it be
determined this proposal should
proceed.

Decision

The Cabinet Member for Children, Young People
and Learning has approved:
 

(1) The publication of
statutory proposals to establish a satellite site for Oak Grove
College and an expansion by up to 60 places taking the current
planned places from 278 to 338.

(2) The allocation of
£9.962m from SEND capital monies to complete the design and
fund delivery of the project at Oak Grove College to expand the
planned places by 60 places via establishing a satellite site and
to carry out associated works as set out in paragraph 2.6 of this
report, should it be determined that this should proceed to
implementation following conclusion of the statutory proposal
period;

(3) The delegation of
authority to the Assistant Director (Education and Skills) to
determine whether the proposal to expand Oak Grove College by 60
places should proceed, following consideration of any
representations received during the statutory consultation stage,
and

(4) Should the
proposed expansion proceed, the delegation of authority to the
Assistant Director (Property and Assets) to approve completion of
the final design work, commence a procurement process and award the
contract to undertake the expansion project via establishing a
satellite site for Oak Grove College, including obtaining any
statutory consents and in accordance with the scope and financial
parameters set out in this report.