Appendix 3
Proposals for expansion of accommodation for GreensideSchool and Barnwell
Background and need: Greenside
- Provision of better accommodation for GreensideSpecialSchool has been a long-standing priority for the Council. In 2008, as part of the BSF programme, a Business Case was approved to provide new accommodation for secondary aged pupils attending Greenside as part of a relocation of BarnwellSchool to a wholly new building on the site of Heathcote. Alongside this, existing Greenside accommodation was to have been refurbished for primary-aged pupils. This has not been implemented due to the cancellation of the BSF programme.
- Partly in consequence, officers have been looking at ways to address the acute deficiencies in Greenside’s accommodation. The Table below compares existing Greenside provision with what the relevant Building Bulletin (BB102) suggests for a school of its characteristics, and what is currently being provided for Lonsdale.
Table:
(i)Model accommodation schedule for range D Special School with 64 places (11-16) & 24 (post 16:
- 3500 sq. m. gross area (11-16)
- 580 sq. m. gross area (post 16).
(ii)Current Greenside accommodation for 66 secondary aged and 51 primary aged pupils
- 1837 sq. m.
(iii)Planned accommodation for LonsdaleSchool, 84 pupils (primary and secondary aged)
- 4884 sq. m.
3.Using either comparator, Greenside’s accommodation is well below half of what would be expected, by area. Some of it is also substandard, for example a converted bungalow.
Background and need: Barnwell
4.There has been for some while local problems round access to school places in South Stevenage and Knebworth, which have been addressed by ad hoc increases in admissions to Barnwell in excess of its long-term, planned PAN. With increasing future projected numbers of secondary aged pupils in S Stevenage, the case for a permanent increase in Barnwell’s PAN has become stronger. The existing school operates over two sites (former Collenswood and Barnwell), the Barnwell site itself being formerly for a 5 FE school. The (cancelled) BSF proposal was to relocate and expand Barnwell onto the former Heathcote site, on its closure, and release the former Collenswood site for disposal.
The current proposal
5.In April this year, Cabinet agreed to allocate the site of HeathcoteSchool to Barnwell and Greenside schools on the closure of Heathcote in August 2012. This was to facilitate the expansion of Barnwell to 10 Forms of Entry from September 2012, and also to enable the deficiencies in the accommodation available to Greenside to be addressed.
6.Co-locating Greenside secondary provision with part of Barnwell at Heathcote would meet a series of objectives:
- To address poor quality of accommodation
- To provide access to better internal and external space standards, both at Heathcote and in existing Greenside buildings
- To provide better access to specialist teaching accommodation at secondary-level
- To allow Greenside to extent the range of provision it offers, in line with the wider objectives round the developing roles of special schools being articulated through the DSPL (Developing Special Provision Locally) programme.
7.Barnwell itself has consulted staff and parents on a new model of organisation for operation at 10 FE. This is to operate as two 5FE 11-16 schools, one on the existing Barnwell site and one on the Heathcote site. This pattern of operation is intended to be beneficial educationally, in that it provides the smaller scale and social content of a small school (of 750 pupils) but with the economies of scale and delivery of specialisms of a much larger school.
8.It is also adapted to the sizes of the existing buildings – since originally both Heathcote and Barnwell operated as 5 FE 11-18 schools.
Phase 1 of the proposals
9.The first phase of the proposals are works to the Heathcote building, required properly to equip it for shared use by Greenside, and its new pattern of use by Barnwell. It is important to seek to get these underway as soon as possible on the closure of Heathcote, so as to allow at least partial access by Barnwell from September 2012, as well as avoid the costs of holding empty buildings.
10.The works required include a small element of new build (200 sq. metres) but more substantial work to remodel part of the existing Heathcote buildings, in particular specialist facilities. About 80% of the Heathcote buildings would remain untouched, other than superficial redecoration. Appreciable external works are also required including provision of a covered walk-way from the Greenside buildings (where pupils will be dropped off in the mornings) to link to new provision at Heathcote.
11.Adaptations to allow BarnwellSchool to use the Heathcote building are relatively limited, since it is already in use as an 11-18 mainstream school.
12.The estimate overall cost of works is £4.6m. It is not possible to attribute an exact share to each school as there are extensive shared facilities. But the proposals deliver a substantial part of the benefits envisaged from the BSF-funded proposals at a much-reduced cost. Indeed the original costs for BSF works to Heathcote and Barnwell sites were in the region of £40m.
Value for money
13.Even though the current scheme is much reduced in cost, a series of reviews have been undertaken and options evaluated to test that what is proposed is the minimum acceptable to meet the identified needs. A number of options have been developed and the least-cost which delivers what is required is that which is now being pursued.
14.It should be noted that this option will still leave Greenside short on accommodation in terms of Building Bulletin standards. As far as Barnwell is concerned, the school has written to express its concern that the proposals entail “a significantly reduced plan and lower standard of refurbishment” and that a budget figure of c£10m would be more appropriate. Notwithstanding this, officers believe that the pressures on limited schools capital funding are such that it would not be justifiable to propose a significantly more expensive scheme.
Future phases
15.Works to Heathcote have been developed as a part of a plan which would have addressed building condition and other needs at both the Heathcote site, at Barnwell itself, and at the former Collenswood site. This latter was in the context of the proposed UniversityTechnicalCollege, which is now unlikely to proceed. The future for Barnwell site and former Collenswood will now need to be reconsidered in that light, and an assessment made of the value for money of seeking to consolidate provision on only one of the two sites (i.e. Barnwell). A feasibility study is about to commence which will look at this.
17.There is also benefit in limited refurbishment of parts of the retained Greenside buildings, which are not included above. However, commitment to Phase 1 does not in itself require a commitment to future phases at this stage.
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