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

(Form updated April 2019)

Proposal to close Woodfield Community Primary School from 31 December 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 6 June 2022

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 close Woodfield Community Primary School from 31 December 2022. A period of consultation with the local community has been carried out, including written consultation and a public meeting. 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.

The Governing Bodies of Woodfield Community Primary and Grove Road Community Primary explored with LA officers combining the two schools in order to share the benefit of both school sites. The move would have meant Woodfield School would technically close and become part of Grove Road from September 2022. An extensive consultation process was undertaken involving public meetings and gathering the views of parents and the local community during December and January. After careful consideration Grove Road Community Primary School decided in March, with regret, to withdraw its support for the amalgamation. In light of this, the County Council’s Executive decided to reject the amalgamation proposal at its meeting on 19 April 2022.

Following this, the Governing Body of Woodfield Community Primary School has looked again at what options are available for the school, and concluded that they have now exhausted all options. They have therefore had to request that the County Council undertake a consultation on a proposal that the school should close.

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 from 31 December 2022. It is proposed that the catchment areas of Bilton Grange Primary School and Grove Road Community Primary School are expanded in some form (to be agreed) to include the current Woodfield School catchment area.

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 6 June 2022 to 4 July 2022. Consultation documents were distributed to a wide range of stakeholders, and a public engagement meeting was held.  The consultation document, responses, and note of the public meeting are included in the report to the Executive on 19 July.

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 Woodfield School close from 31 December 2022, any deficit on the Woodfield School budget on that date would be absorbed by the County Council.

If the school closed, there could be a potential additional cost to the Local Authority in providing transport to other schools. All addresses within the Woodfield School catchment area would, however, still be within the statutory walking distance to either Grove Road or Bilton Grange School. Free home to school transport would be provided for entitled pupils in accordance with the revised catchment area arrangements in accordance with the County Council’s Home to School transport policy.

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, other schools will work closely with parents, to meet the needs of individual children. Moving to an alternative school will increase the opportunities for pupils to learn and socially interact with more children of their own age.
Disability			x	Pupils – The school is mainstream offering universal provision. However, there are 11 children who have SEN support and 3 pupils with Education, Health and Care plans. Two further children are in the process of assessment for an EHCP. It is acknowledged that the proposed closure of Woodfield Community Primary School will cause uncertainty and disruption for all pupils, parents and staff, other schools will work closely with parents, to meet the needs of individual children. It is likely that the changes will have increased impact on this cohort of pupils. Expertise will be utilised from the County Council to provide appropriate SEND 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 documents have been translated in Arabic. 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			Concern has been expressed during consultation around the impact of increased travel distances to alternative schools.
…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.

The County Council’s Officers now feel that this decision is in the best interests of children and families served by the school.

Local authority officers are undertaking a managed and co-ordinated process for the allocation of alternative school places for January 2023, or earlier if that is parents’ wishes. Offers of alternative school places, in line with parental preference wherever possible, will be made and it will be a decision for parents whether to take up those offers and when, taking account of the progression of the statutory closure process.

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 an alternative a school, as set out above in Section 7. Careful consideration of alternative options, including searches for potential academy sponsors, and proposals to amalgamate with Grove Road School have been explored, but these have been unsuccessful, and alternative options now appear to have been exhausted. A detailed analysis of these issues is contained in the Statutory Proposals and the report to Executive. It is concluded that this proposal in the best interests of providing sustainable educational provision.

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. Monitoring of sufficiency of school places in the area will be

undertaken by the CYPS Strategic Planning Team.

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 close Woodfield School 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:  6/7/22

Authorised by relevant Assistant Director (signature): A Newbold

Date: 7/7/22