Minutes:
Councillor C. Beaumont, Cabinet Member for Children and Education Services, welcomed the members of the public and press in attendance at the meeting. She especially welcomed the young people who were students at Abbey School, and their siblings, to the meeting; it was good to see them in the Town Hall.
Members of the public and the press were invited to ask questions.
A member of the public, a parent whose son attended Abbey School, asked whether there were any plans to replace the current Headteacher given how she had lost the confidence of the staff and parents at the School?
Ian Thomas, Strategic Director of Children and Young People’s Services Directorate, referred to the external report that had been commissioned and received. The School was currently controlled by the Interim Executive Board (IEB), which was acting with delegated authority. Everyone involved wanted to move forward with the needs of children at the heart. It was also important to ensure that matters were conducted with dignity. The Strategic Director was determined that matters would move forward in a positive way.
A member of the public, who had worked at Abbey School for almost nineteen years, spoke warmly about the amazing young people who attended the School now and in the past. She totally agreed that it was the children and young people attending the School who needed to be the most important. The Support Staff at the School were the lowest paid employees working there. They had been accused in writing of not co-operating, interviewed in relation to fabricated events, bullied, lied to and kept in the dark. They were working under a high stress level, and this had caused many staff to go off ill. Staff wellbeing was really important at Abbey School, staff were working in extremely difficult circumstances. They had been working with no support apart from the Unions.
The Strategic Director referred to the duty of care that the Local Authority had to all staff. Something that could not be forgotten was that no party came out well in the External Consultant’s report on Abbey School; the education and progress made by vulnerable children started to decline from 2012.
The Local Authority was committed to supporting staff and everyone’s energies would be best served putting the needs of children at the heart of matters. Energy would not be best served on continuing to lay blame.
The proposal being considered today, if approved, would mean that there would be smaller numbers attending Abbey School, which should reduce stress on members of staff. Under the proposal pupils would have a defined level of need. The Local Authority’s Human Resources Service provided access to a confidential counselling service.
The Strategic Director encouraged all parties to work together to ensure that the School progressed and was not forced to go through Consultation processes again in relation to proposals to close. If there was insufficient progress this would need to be considered again. The Secretary of State also had the ability to close schools that were not performing adequately.
Moving forward was in the best interests for all involved.
The member of the public asked a supplementary question relating to the level of stress that staff felt. Could HR be more proactive and have a higher presence in the School?
The Strategic Director stated that he would absolutely ensure that this was the case.
A member of the public involved with the National Union of Teachers spoke about the Abbey Campaign Group and described them as a wonderful group of people. It was in all teachers’ DNA to want children to improve, if they did not want this they were in the wrong job. The member of the public disagreed with some aspects of the External Consultant’s report. Abbey School would not have stayed open without the support of the members of the public attending today. Abbey School had been charged £155k by the Winterhill management team who had then managed Abbey School to disaster. Are there any plans to refund the money?
The Strategic Director confirmed that there had not been a Memorandum of Understanding between the Local Authority, Abbey School and Winterhill School, and this was a learning point to take on board for the future. The Strategic Director had requested an audit investigation to understand better what the charges had been spent on and did not want to pre-judge the outcome of this process by saying what would happen in the long-term.
Mr. P. Bell, the External Consultant, found the decision to appoint Winterhill a sound one. Unfortunately the solution did not work. The Strategic Director did not believe that Winterhill went into a partnership withAbbey School wanting to do a bad job. Furthermore, the decline in Abbey School’s outcomes started well before the involvement of Winterhill.
Mr. P. Bell was a current Executive Headteacher of two Outstanding Special Schools, a sponsor of a large mainstream primary school, a National Leader of Education and a current Additional Inspector for Ofsted. The Strategic Director took as read everything in his report and accepted it in full.
The most important thing was to ensure that the children and young people at Abbey School got the best deal moving forward. If standards had not improved within in one year’s time the Local Authority would be undertaking Pre-Statutory Consultation on closure once more.
The member of the public confirmed that the aspiration of all partners was to move the school forward. He hoped that the Abbey Campaign Group would stay together as a group and fundraise for out-of-school activities that would benefit the children and young people attending. This was something that had been sadly lacking in the past.
The member of the public wished to thank the NUT and GMB for funding the Abbey Campaign group and enabling the campaign. He also wished to thank the Rotherham Labour Group and the Councillors he had been involved with and hoped that this was the start of the Labour Party rediscovering their role in looking after ordinary people. “Thank you for keeping Abbey School open.”
A member of the public representing the GMB Union confirmed his members’ commitment to moving forward and making progress. However, in the past he felt that at every opportunity barriers had been put in place by the Management Team. Unless this changed the School could not move forward. The GMB Representative welcomed more involvement from HR, and also confirmed his intention to commission a stress audit at the school. It had been these factors that had prevented Abbey from moving forward, it was not down to staff not wanting to move forward. The representative described his emotions over this as severely angry; he explained how staff suggestions for improvements had been laughed at in the past. This had to stop or else all partners would be in the same situation in twelve months’ time.
The Strategic Director felt that it would be unfair to be judge and jury or to single-out individuals. The External Consultant’s report was clear that there had been collective failures, no one party came out looking good.
The Strategic Director confirmed his commitment to bringing HR support into the School and welcomed the stress test. All processes would be conducted with dignity through the IEB.
Ofsted’s monitoring report had confirmed that there were green shoots of improvement at Abbey School.
A member of the public, who had a son attending Abbey School, confirmed how all parties at the School wanted to move forward eighteen months’ ago. Her son had been subject to eighteen months’ stress. What would moving forward look like?
The Strategic Director described how moving forward would mean that the School was no longer considered as inadequate by Ofsted. The School was being supported and challenged by the School Effectiveness Service. If children and young people were not making progress the School and the Local Authority could well be in the same place and consulting on closure once again. The Local Authority had to consider closure when schools were failing. The Secretary of State also had powers to close schools that were failing.
Councillor M. Vines referred to the past eighteen-months of difficulties at the School. When would the Winterhill Partnership and management be replaced in order that the School could start moving forward?
The Strategic Director referred to the priority to ensure that children and young people received the best possible provision. The proposal being considered today was to dissolve the partnership with Winterhill. This would be done by the IEB who would ensure that the School was not disrupted in the process. A collaboration with a strong special school would be entered into for the future.
Ofsted had been a little positive and had noted that the School was starting to improve at their last monitoring visit.
The timeline for the phasing out of the old system, and embedding a new one would be over the next few weeks. Processes would be implemented in a timely manner and with the best interests of pupils in mind.
A young man who was a student at Abbey School wished to say to those responsible for keeping Abbey open: “Thank you for saving my School”.
Councillor Roche agreed that it was the best thing for all parties that the Local Authority had considered consulting on closing the School. It was also the right thing to do legally. He wished to thank the Abbey Campaign group for the good job they had done.
It was now important to move forward and ensure that the School and Local Authority was not at the same place in twelve months’ time having to consult on closure once again.
Councillor Beaumont thanked those in attendance for their questions and Ian Thomas for answering them. Councillor Beaumont really did believe in listening to people. As a former teacher and union officer she always kept young people in mind and close to heart, but also believed that staff had to feel supported. It was now important to learn from the past and not allow it to drag us down. She referred to the metaphor of the phoenix rising from the ashes – Abbey had been a fantastic place for young people in the past and she wanted all people to work together to make it that way once again.