Agenda item

Committee received the report of the Head of Transformation in relation to Proposal to Establish a Secondary Education Nurture Centre at Cefn Saeson Comprehensive School.

(At this point on the meeting, Councillor J.Warman disclosed an interest in this item as he is a Governor at Cefn Saeson).

Members then raised the following points:-

·                    Whether the 16 places planned for the new centre would be enough and were advised that this was in addition to the current main provision at Ysgol Hendrefelin.  Once the SENC was established the two facilities would provide for pupils who expressed their needs differently.  In addition, other planned places were available at alternative settings as part of the Council’s overarching inclusion strategy.  The SENC would complement existing support  arrangements to form part of a suite of provision across the area with the aim of keeping it within the County Borough.

·                    Members sought clarification of the wording within the report, in particular the phrase ‘externalising their needs’ and were advised that this phrase has been used in the report as a pragmatic description of pupil behaviour where the reaction to a situation of stress and anxiety resulted in an outward expression of emotion, while the phrase ‘internalising’ would refer to those pupils who dealt with their emotions by becoming withdrawn.

·                    Clarification was also sought on the financial responsibility of the originating school wherein it was noted that it was necessary to maintain the links between the pupil and the originating school in order to ensure that the transition back to mainstream education was as smooth as possible.  In order to achieve this it would be necessary for teaching staff to visit the nurture centre to monitor the progress being made. In relation to the financing Members noted that formal discussions with secondary schools had yet to be finalised.  However,  the Pupil Deprivation Grant would probably transfer with the child but other streams of finance would likely remain with the ‘home’ school in order to maintain the school place.  In relation to financing the Nurture Unit itself the Authority had allocated sufficient finances.

·                    Members asked whether the Unit would be classed as part of Cefn Saeson Comprehensive School during the Estyn inspection and were advised that the governance aspect of both facilities would be taken together but that performance and attendance would not. 

Following scrutiny, the Committee was supportive of the proposals to be considered by Cabinet.