Parents and carers of children with autism are fighting to keep a school's specialist provision open after it announced closure. Families were informed in January that Chipping Sodbury Access Centre, based at Chipping Sodbury School in South Gloucestershire, planned to close for financial reasons.
Parents have now started a campaign to save it and will be raising their concerns at a South Gloucestershire Council meeting this evening (February 15). In their online petition the Access Centre is described as offering a “unique” and “life-changing” provision.
Tara Jepson, whose child attends the centre, said they may be left with no other choice but to home school - despite the disruption and financial impact such a decision would have on their family life. She said: “It’s short-sighted and doesn’t make financial sense, I would have to give up my job.
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“They are pulling the rug from under these kids' feet and will pay for it later when these young people won’t be able to go to college or have the necessary skills to get into work."
The centre opened in 2014 and caters to children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) without them being completely excluded from mainstream education. It is based within the same building as Chipping Sodbury School, which was funded by the local authority up until April 2021 when the school converted into an academy as part of the Athelstan Trust.
The petition describes the centre as “the first of many of the SEND provisions impacted by the Banding and Safety valve agreements in South Gloucestershire". In the local authority’s ‘Banding and Safety valve’ agreement with the Department for Education, a plan is laid out for steps to be taken to increase ‘value for money’ in the type of provision offered, as well as ‘reduce the need for EHCPs’.
An EHCP (Education and Health Care Plan) is a document which lays out a child or young person's needs and the additional resources needed to support their education and with it there is additional funding available, which allows for additional support within a mainstream school or specialist education placement.
The school had a ten-year contract with the council, which will expire in 2024 after the trust decided not to renew the provision for financial reasons. In the letter sent to parents in January, the school said the £40,000 funding it used to receive per pupil has not increased in 10 years despite rising costs.
It said funding cuts meant it was now facing being left with a base of just £15,000 per pupil, which means they do not have the money to continue with the Access Centre, which currently provides education for 12 pupils with SEND. In response, the council said the funding allocation is still above the national average and they believe it "would be possible to maintain the provision".
'Absolute disaster'
Parent Kirstie, whose daughter has been attending the centre since September 2022, says the closure will be devastating: "It's an absolute disaster for the children and their families. There are no local sites that can meet these young people’s needs.
“Having to travel long distances is unthinkable for many who have extreme anxiety. Even if another school place was available, the transition could set them back years – many of these children are on the cusp of GCSEs.
“The result of this closure will be life changing, and not in a good way.” Another parent, Anne, said Chipping Sodbury Access Centre is the only school that can meet her son’s needs.
Anne said: “My young person has no physical disabilities but needs a high level of support. He wasn’t considered disabled enough for some placements, and not independent enough for others.
“The Access Centre bridged that gap. Without Chipping Sodbury children like mine won’t be able to go to school.”
Council's response
A spokesperson for South Gloucestershire Council said: “The current service level agreement for the Access Centre at Chipping Sodbury School comes to an end in June 2024 and the academy trust has taken the decision not to renew the agreement. We are aware this is extremely disappointing for the parents and carers of young people affected by their decision.
“Young people currently in years 10 and 11 will continue their education at Chipping Sodbury School until the end of their secondary education and we will work with parents and the school to identify appropriate placements and ensure a smooth transition into suitable schools for those young people in years 7, 8 and 9. We completed a two-year review of the funding for children with education health and care plans in April 2022 with the objective of moving to a needs-led rather than a provision-led model.
“This was to address a variance between the level of funding allocated in South Gloucestershire and most other local authorities. Following the review, the funding allocation is still above the national average, and we believe it would be possible to maintain the Access Centre provision at Chipping Sodbury school.
“This is based on comparisons we carried out with other local authorities and that overall funding for education will increase significantly next year. Our intention was always to assess the impact of the changes and work with schools to see how they could achieve efficiencies or consider alternative options if it was not reasonable to expect them to make the adjustments. Unfortunately, the Trust did not want to enter further dialogue and made the decision to cease the provision.”
Families will take their concern to South Gloucestershire's full council meeting at 7pm this evening, at Kingswood Civic Centre. They have set up a petition which can be viewed here.
The school has been contacted for comment.
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