A consultation that could lead to special educational needs and disability (SEND) school pupils being transferred to a site 14 miles away is launching this week.
Liverpool Council is staging an engagement exercise touting the possibility of three city special schools and pupil referral units changing locations in a bid to meet demand for places. The non-statutory consultation will ask stakeholders for their thoughts on Bank View School on Long Lane to relocate 14 miles away to Parklands in Speke.
Consideration will also be given to Princes School on Selborne Street moving to Redbridge School on Long Lane, while Redbridge would move into Bank View as they occupy the same site.
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It will also seek to assess the viability of New Heights Key Stage 4 site relocating from Parklands to the vacant school premises on Naylorsfield Drive. Jonathan Jones, Liverpool Council director of education and skills said the consultation was “about the creation of additional places and we’ll engage with stakeholders.”
He told the authority’s education and skills committee the purpose of the exercise was to form a long-term plan but acknowledged the council’s response had previously appeared “haphazard and reactionary.” Mr Jones said: “The growth of special school places is rising exponentially and with that rise comes exponential costs.
“Part of it is about adapting to the situation we’re in but also about the situation we want to be in. We’re certainly trying to utilise every spare building we’ve got but fundamentally it’s about getting the right places for children and having that provision across the city.”
Further discussions will be held with the leadership at Ernest Cookson School, Hope School, Clifford Holroyde School and Woolton High School regarding future organisation and the delivery of education at these locations for young people with social, emotional, and mental health needs.
The possibility of relocating children has been met with short shrift by some parents, including Alan Osborne, whose son George, 12, attends Bank View. He told the ECHO that children “will suffer” as a result of any possible move.
Mr Jones told committee members the intention was for Bank View to completely occupy the Parklands building which would in turn “create a significant number of places.” He added that pupils at Bank View and Princes School had “ended up in the wrong building” and were being moved to where facilities are most suited.
Cllr Ruth Bennett said “reorganisation in itself creates instability in the system” and told colleagues that during her time at Town Hall, moves to Wavertree and the north of the city had been proposed for New Heights ahead of this latest option. Committee chair Barbara Murray said she was “delighted” by the options presented and really welcomed the engagement city-wide.
The consultation will run until May with an expectation that findings will go before Liverpool Council’s cabinet in September or October, with a view to implementation of the results in September next year.
