Brighton and Hove’s failure to reduce school intakes as fast as pupil numbers plummet has been criticised by a government report.
Lead schools adjudicator Bryan Slater wrote that the city now has an urgent need to reduce places as a result – and has warned against making hasty decisions which would affect vulnerable young children.
However, government policy is to prioritise parental preference, and so when popular schools appealed against attempts, they have been successful.
Other attempts to shrink schools where applications were falling more rapidly have been abandoned after facing opposition from councillors, unions and parents.
The result is that over several years, most proposals to reduce numbers have failed, leaving an ever bigger surplus as pupil numbers continue to fall.
As schools are funded on a per-pupil basis, this means undersubscribed schools have struggled even more than most to make ends meet, sometimes being forced to run half-empty classrooms.
This week, Labour confirmed it was dropping the policy of targeting larger schools when looking to reduce intakes – or the published admission number (PAN).
Dr Slater’s report, for the Office of the Schools Adjudicator, was in consideration of an appeal by St Bartholomew’s School against the council’s decision to close it from August.
It upheld the council’s decision to close it, but delayed it until Christmas. Another primary school, St Peter’s in Portslade, did not appeal is and still set to close this summer.
The report said: “The council has also told us that until 2023/2024 it had tried to manage the surplus places in the primary school sector by reducing the size of schools.
“However, it has realised the limitations of relying on this approach, which can have the effect of frustrating parental preference if popular schools are reduced in size.”
It added: “We accept that the council does have an urgent need to address the surplus capacity in the primary schools in the city on financial grounds.
“However we cannot but consider that this urgency is at least in part as a result of what appears to have been inaction on its own part in recent years as this problem was developing– both in failing to take action more promptly to address the need to reduce the capacity in schools and to ensure that schools were taking management action to remain within their allocated budgets.
“We do not consider that this urgency should be a reason for making decisions which worsen any adverse impact on very young children, some of whom are known to have multiple vulnerabilities.”
While the policy to target larger schools was in place, three and four-form entry schools came under repeated pressure to voluntarily reduce their intake.
The minutes of a governor’s meeting at St Luke’s – an oversubscribed, three-form entry primary school – record that the council wrote to them for the third time in early 2022 saying it should “search its conscience” and agree to reduce to two-form entry.
The school declined this request – one of four approaches the council made. In 2023, it was one of seven schools earmarked to shrink. It is now one of three schools also awaiting a decision on an appeal to the OSA.
Deputy council leader Jacob Taylor said: “The decision of the Office of the Schools Adjudicator acknowledges the reality that the council came to accept – namely that the policy of only attempting to reduce PANs at large schools had failed, and left the city with too much pupil capacity and school budgets in a very difficult position.”
“The Green party never accepted this reality, and never offered a serious alternative to the proposal to close two primary schools – a proposal we didn’t make lightly.
“The honest truth is that they kicked the can down the road, left the incoming Labour council to deal with it, then simply opposed from the sidelines.”
Green councillor Sue Shanks, former opposition spokesperson for schools, said: “Changes in school arrangements policy under the last administration were formed with cross-party working and required cross-party support in order to be implemented.
“We carried out genuine consultation with those affected and sought to work collaboratively with the Brighton and Hove family of schools, in stark contrast to how the Labour administration has handled the closure of St Bartholomew’s and St Peter’s.
“The responsibility for this latest fiasco lands solely at the feet of the Labour majority council, who rushed through the process of school closures, while ignoring parents, staff, and governors.
“The Office of the Schools Adjudicator was clear that the urgency of the situation was not a reason for ‘making decisions which would worsen any adverse impact on very young children, some of whom are known to have multiple vulnerabilities.’
“We hope Labour will seek to work with the school this time around to ensure the best outcome for pupils.”
A spokesperson for Brighton and Hove City Council said: “The Office of the Schools Adjudicator examined this decision afresh, making their own independent assessment, and concluded that ‘the case for the closure of the school has been made’.
“They also made a number of observations, which we will consider as part of our future school place planning, but their overall conclusion was clear.”
Perhaps we should “critise” Jo’s spelling or editorial skills? 😀
Not sure I’ve ever heard Jacob Taylor accept any responsibility or properly acknowledge anything ever. Every other word he says is a dig at the Greens, surely there must come a point at some point when he can no longer try and conveniently twist the narrative (he seems to have conveniently forgotten the cross party working groups Labour councillors sat on to make decisions on school places in the city during the 2-3 year Green minority administration).
If Labour were so bothered about the situation, why didn’t they tackle it between 2015-July 2020 when they ran the council – this is a problem long in the making). There’s no easy answer on school places in the city, it’s a shame that Labour are so closed off to cross party working, but more importantly, listening to heads, teachers and parents, and bringing them into the conversation. The handling of the St Bart’s and St Peter’s closures has been dreadful – and that is down to this Labour council and them alone.
There are good examples of how other areas handled the same problem, and these examples have been shared with Labour councillors, and ignored.
The way Jacob Taylor has handled the situation has been cruel and a joke.
He can’t think of actual solutions other than ripping kids from their communities despite their vulnerabilities.
Staff now redundant, kids in Y5 having to change schools twice now, the whole thing has been handled by Labour clowns who have no ability to take ANY responsibility!
Led by Donkeys.
100% agree, his tone and comments at various committee meetings were hard to watch – he completely ignored the evidence parents and teachers put forward about the impact on SEND children and the need to not rush closure and to allow more time. What they put forward was evidenced based and informed, Labour’s response was not. Like you say, cruel.