Purpose

St Anthony’s is a special
school in Chichester offering Special Educational Needs and
Disabilities (SEND) provision for children and young people with
moderate learning difficulties aged between 4 and 16. There is a
need to increase the number of places at the school to meet rising
demand. A feasibility study and initial design work has been
undertaken to expand St Anthony’s into school buildings
situated on the same site as the special school that are currently
occupied by Jessie Younghusband Primary School. St Anthony’s
expansion into these school buildings would create up to 50
additional specialist school places, increasing St Anthony’s
planned place numbers from 248 to 298.
 
In December 2023
approval was given to launch an
initial public consultation , in accordance with Department for
Education (DfE) guidance, to seek views on the proposal to relocate
Jessie Younghusband from its current location to a new school being
built nearby.  As part of that
consultation views were also sought on the proposal to expand St
Anthony’s into the Jessie Younghusband Primary School site
once vacated. Responses demonstrated a broad range of views to the
proposal as set out in section 4 of this report.
 
A subsequent decision by the
Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Learning
approved the relocation of Jessie Younghusband, with the school
due to open at the new site in September 2025.
 
The
DfE guidance sets out the stages of the process that should be
undertaken when considering expanding a special school.  Having completed the first stage, the initial
consultation, the Cabinet Member is now asked to consider approving
the progression of the proposal to the next stage of the process
– publication of statutory notices.
 
Remodelling works would be
required to the Jessie Younghusband Primary School site to create
facilities that meet the requirements of children attending St
Anthony’s school.  Therefore,
approval is also sought for allocating the capital funding required
to finalise the design and enable delivery of the expansion of St
Anthony’s school, 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 expand St Anthony’s School by 50
additional specialist school places, increasing St Anthony’s
planned place numbers from 248 to 298;

(2) The allocation of
£4.138m from SEND capital monies to develop the design and
fund delivery of the project at St Anthony’s School to expand
the planned places by 50 through expansion into the former Jessie
Younghusband site and to carry out associated works as set out in
paragraph 2.4 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 St Anthony’s by 50
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 at St Anthony’s
school, including obtaining any statutory consents and in
accordance with the scope and financial parameters set out in this
report.