Equality impact assessment (EIA) form: evidencing paying due regard to protected characteristics

(Form updated April 2019)

Proposal to amalgamate Grove Road and Woodfield Community Primary Schools, through the technical closure of Woodfield Community Primary School as a separate entity from 31 August 2022, and the enlargement of premises of Grove Road Community Primary School by expansion onto the Woodfield site from 1 September 2022

If you would like this information in another language or format such as Braille, large print or audio, please contact the Communications Unit on 01609 53 2013 or email communications@northyorks.gov.uk.

Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) are public documents.  EIAs accompanying reports going to County Councillors for decisions are published with the committee papers on our website and are available in hard copy at the relevant meeting.  To help people to find completed EIAs we also publish them in the Equality and Diversity section of our website.  This will help people to see for themselves how we have paid due regard in order to meet statutory requirements. 

Name of Directorate and Service Area	CYPS Strategic Planning Team
Lead Officer and contact details	Andrew Dixon, County Hall
Names and roles of other people involved in carrying out the EIA	John Lee, Strategic Planning Officer
How will you pay due regard? e.g. working group, individual officer	LA Officers and School Governing Bodies
When did the due regard process start?	Consultation started on 2 December 2021

Section 1. Please describe briefly what this EIA is about. (e.g. are you starting a new service, changing how you do something, stopping doing something?)

The proposal is to amalgamate Grove Road and Woodfield Community Primary Schools, through the technical closure of Woodfield Community Primary School as a separate entity from 31 August 2022, and the enlargement of premises of Grove Road Community Primary School by expansion onto the Woodfield site from 1 September 2022. A period of consultation with the community has been carried out, including written consultation and two online public meetings. A statutory representation period will follow.

Section 2. Why is this being proposed? What are the aims? What does the authority hope to achieve by it? (e.g. to save money, meet increased demand, do things in a better way.)

Woodfield Community Primary School was inspected by Ofsted in January 2020, who found the overall effectiveness to be inadequate and the school became subject to special measures. Any maintained school that is judged inadequate by Ofsted is required to become a sponsored academy. The Regional Schools Commissioner has been unable to secure an Academy Trust to sponsor Woodfield School due to viability concerns. Where a school would not be viable as an academy, it is expected the local authority will close the school and that the Secretary of State can direct them to do so if necessary.

Since January 2020, there have been considerable changes in staffing at Woodfield School. The current acting executive headteacher and acting head of school took up leadership at the start of the summer term 2020. The latest monitoring visit by Ofsted to Woodfield School in June 2021 found that leaders and managers are taking effective action towards the removal of special measures, and that the local authority’s statement of action and the school’s action plan were both fit for purpose. It is important to recognise the efforts of all those who have been involved in this improvement journey.

However, the current arrangements can only be temporary and the absence of an academy sponsor means that Woodfield School faces an uncertain future.  Therefore work began earlier this year to assess how education provision within the Woodfield community could be preserved.  The current proposals for amalgamation have been developed by members of the school governing bodies and LA officers. The two governing bodies carefully considered the proposals before autumn half term, and both agreed to ask the County Council to start this consultation on the amalgamation of Woodfield and Grove Road Community Primary Schools.

Section 3. What will change? What will be different for customers and/or staff?

If this proposal went ahead, Woodfield Community Primary School would close as a separate entity and Grove Road Community Primary School would operate as a split site school using the Woodfield site:

· From September 2022, all Nursery children would be based at the current Woodfield site (Grove Road Nursery); all Year Reception to Year 6 pupils would be based at the current Grove Road site.

· All families of children currently attending Woodfield school and who choose to join Grove Road Community Primary School can be accommodated at the existing Grove Road site

· From September 2023, all Nursery children and Reception pupils (2023 cohort) would be based at the current Woodfield site (Grove Road Early Years); all Year 1 to Year 6 pupils would be based at the Grove Road site.

· Growth is expected to continue so that eventually Grove Road Early Years and Grove Road Key Stage 1 would be located at the current Woodfield site and Grove Road Key Stage 2 would be accommodated at the current Grove Road site.

Some Targeted Mainstream Provision would also be based at the current Woodfield site, in addition to that already available on the Grove Road site. Targeted Mainstream Provision offers enhanced levels of specialist support over and above that usually available in mainstream schools, to provide an appropriate environment and personalised support for children and young people with SEND, who are able to access mainstream learning.

Section 4. Involvement and consultation (What involvement and consultation has been done regarding the proposal and what are the results? What consultation will be needed and how will it be done?)

The consultation period ran from 2 December 2021 to 28 January 2022. Consultation documents were distributed to a wide range of stakeholders, and two online public engagement meetings were held.  The consultation document, responses, and notes of the public meetings are included in the report to the Executive on 22 February.

Section 5. What impact will this proposal have on council budgets? Will it be cost neutral, have increased cost or reduce costs?

Please explain briefly why this will be the result.

Should the amalgamation go ahead from 31 August 2022, any deficit on the Woodfield School budget on that date would be absorbed by the County Council.

Section 6. How will this proposal affect people with protected characteristics?	No impact	Make things better	Make things worse	Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.
Age		x	x	While it is acknowledged that the proposed closure of Woodfield Community Primary School will cause uncertainty and disruption for pupils, parents and staff, Grove Road School will work closely with parents, as both schools do now, to meet the needs of individual children. Transition activities are being planned involving the two schools during the summer term, should the proposal proceed. There will be handovers between key personnel in school. The existing Thrive provision at Grove Road School will support emotional welfare. Grove Road School has invited parents, children and staff from Woodfield to visit the school.
Disability	x			Pupils – The school is mainstream offering universal provision. Expertise will be utilised from the County Council to provide appropriate SEN support. Staff – As an organisation NYCC will continue to meet the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 which obligates us to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate disabled individuals as employees or service users.
Sex	x			No impact is anticipated.
Race	x			Copies of the consultation document have been translated in Arabic, Pashto, and Dari. Schools have informed families that separate online meetings can be arranged for families with an interpreter if needed.
Gender reassignment	x			No impact is anticipated.
Sexual orientation	x			No impact is anticipated.
Religion or belief	x			No impact is anticipated.
Pregnancy or maternity	x			No impact is anticipated.
Marriage or civil partnership	x			No impact is anticipated.

Section 7. How will this proposal affect people who…	No impact	Make things better	Make things worse	Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.
..live in a rural area?	x			No impact is anticipated.
…have a low income?	x			No impact is anticipated.
…are carers (unpaid family or friend)?	x			No impact is anticipated.

Section 8. Geographic impact – Please detail where the impact will be (please tick all that apply)
North Yorkshire wide
Craven district
Hambleton district
Harrogate district	x
Richmondshire district
Ryedale district
Scarborough district
Selby district
If you have ticked one or more districts, will specific town(s)/village(s) be particularly impacted? If so, please specify below.
Harrogate Town

Section 9. Will the proposal affect anyone more because of a combination of protected characteristics? (e.g. older women or young gay men) State what you think the effect may be and why, providing evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.

All pupils and staff at the school would experience changes under these proposals that staff and governors would need to manage.

Places for children currently attending Woodfield School would be made available through the amalgamation with Grove Road. Parents could also express a preference for any alternative school. The Local Authority’s Admission Team will continue to work with families to try to meet their individual preferences for primary schools.

Section 10. Next steps to address the anticipated impact. Select one of the following options and explain why this has been chosen. (Remember: we have an anticipatory duty to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people can access services and work for us)	Tick option chosen
1. No adverse impact - no major change needed to the proposal. There is no potential for discrimination or adverse impact identified.
2. Adverse impact - adjust the proposal - The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We will change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, or we will achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people.
3. Adverse impact - continue the proposal - The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We cannot change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, nor can we achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people. (There must be compelling reasons for continuing with proposals which will have the most adverse impacts. Get advice from Legal Services)	x
4. Actual or potential unlawful discrimination - stop and remove the proposal – The EIA identifies actual or potential unlawful discrimination. It must be stopped.
Explanation of why option has been chosen. (Include any advice given by Legal Services.) This proposal may be considered to have an adverse impact for those pupils currently on roll at Woodfield School as they would have to move to Grove Road School or an alternative a school, as set out above in Section 7 .Careful consideration has been had to alternatives to the technical closure of Woodfield School, but it is concluded that this proposal and the related expansion of Grove Road School onto the Woodfield site would keep education provision within the Woodfield community.

Section 11. If the proposal is to be implemented how will you find out how it is really affecting people? (How will you monitor and review the changes?)

Monitoring of standards will be carried out through the County Council’s Education & Skills Team and through Ofsted inspections.

Section 12. Action plan. List any actions you need to take which have been identified in this EIA, including post implementation review to find out how the outcomes have been achieved in practice and what impacts there have actually been on people with protected characteristics.
Action	Lead	By when	Progress	Monitoring arrangements
Not applicable

Section 13. Summary Summarise the findings of your EIA, including impacts, recommendation in relation to addressing impacts, including any legal advice, and next steps. This summary should be used as part of the report to the decision maker.

The purpose of the consultation and proposed decision is to ensure that the children are provided with the best education provision in the area in a sustainable, stable and effective manner. In order to achieve these aims the proposal to Woodfield School and expand Grove Road to amalgamate the schools needs to be considered. Whilst it is recognised that there may be adverse impact upon those with protected characteristic of age, there are more positive impacts that will result if these proposals are implemented.  As these proposals develop any adverse impacts will be carefully monitored and all reasonable mitigations will be taken.

Section 14. Sign off section

This full EIA was completed by:

Name: J Lee

Job title: Strategic Planning Officer

Directorate: CYPS

Completion date:  7/2/22

Authorised by relevant Assistant Director (signature): A Newbold

Date: 7/2/22