Agenda item - Public Involvement

To consider the following matters raised by members of the public:

(a)           Petitions: 

To receive any petitions presented by members of the public.

(b)           Written Questions:

To receive any questions submitted by the due date of 12 noon on the 21 June 2024.

(c)           Deputations:           

To receive any deputations submitted by the due date of 12 noon on the 17 June 2024.

(a)           Public Questions

(1)           The Future of Homewood College

3.1          On behalf of Steve Allen, Councillor Shanks read the following question:

“Where is the cost benefit analysis, that was promised? This document appears to have no costings”.

3.2          Councillor Taylor provided the following reply:

“The Council has consulted with staff on the impact of decommissioning places at Homewood College. This process concluded with a consultation response document shared with all staff in which additional information on the financial aspects of the proposal was outlined.

Homewood College finished the 2022/23 financial year with an overspend of £343,000. At the end of 2023/24 this had grown to £709,000. If no changes were made to the operation of Homewood College the deficit could be expected to significantly escalate further.

By way of comparison with neighbouring Local Authorities, Homewood College is better funded in terms of the per pupil top-up rate when compared to SEMH schools in East and West Sussex.

As outlined in the staff consultation response, it was not possible to provide a straight comparison to future provision and the potential increasing deficit position of Homewood College. However a reasonable analysis of the current and future costs identifies that any new arrangements are unlikely to exceed the cost of maintaining Homewood College places in the future.

It should also be reinforced that this proposal was not based on purely financial reasons the school was rated inadequate by Ofsted, with high levels of pupil absence and concerns about the ability of the offer provided being able to meet the needs of the pupils placed there”.