NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
THE EXECUTIVE
24 January 2023
PROPOSAL TO CEASE TO MAINTAIN HOVINGHAM CHURCH OF ENGLAND VOLUNTARY CONTROLLED PRIMARY SCHOOL
Report by the Corporate Director – Children and Young People’s Service
1.0 PURPOSE OF REPORT
1.1 This report details the outcomes of the public consultation carried out by the County Council on the proposal to close Hovingham CE VC Primary School, and asks the Executive to authorise the publication of proposals and statutory notices on 3 February 2023, and to schedule taking a final decision on the proposal on 21 March 2023.
2.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2.1 In Autumn 2022, the governing body of the Federation of Hovingham CE VC Primary School and St Hilda’s CE VC Primary School resolved, with regret and reluctance, to ask the County Council to consult on closure proposals for Hovingham CE Primary School. On 18 October 2022, the Executive Member for Education, Learning and Skills approved consultation on a proposal that the County Council should close Hovingham CE Primary School from 31 March 2023.
2.2 This report details the responses to this consultation and asks the Executive to authorise the publication of statutory proposals and notices on 3 February 2023, and to schedule taking a final decision on the proposal on 21 March 2023. If approved, the school would close on 31 March 2023.
2.3 The report is supported by a number of Appendices as listed below:
Appendix 1: Consultation Paper
Appendix 2: List of the Consultees
Appendix 3: Notes of the Public Meeting
Appendix 4: Consultation Responses
Appendix 5: Response from Ryedale Learning Trust
Appendix 6: Climate Change Impact Assessment
Appendix 7: Full draft statutory proposals and draft statutory notice
Appendix 8: Equality Impact Assessment
3.0 BACKGROUND
3.1 Hovingham Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School is a 3-11 Primary School located in a rural area of Ryedale. The school has been federated with St Hilda’s CE VC Primary School, Ampleforth since 2016.
3.2 At a governing body meeting of the Federation of Hovingham CE Primary School and St Hilda’s CE Primary School in autumn 2022 it was resolved, with regret and reluctance, to ask the County Council to consult on closure proposals for Hovingham CE Primary School.
3.3 The main factor prompting the request is there are currently no pupils on roll at Hovingham School. Since the 2017/18 academic year there has been a downward trend of pupil numbers which fell from 33 in May 2020 to 24 in May 2021. This trend accelerated across the 2021/22 academic year with the school having 20 pupils on roll in October, 16 in January and only 7 in May 2022 (all of whom were in key stage 2). Between May 2022 and the start of the new term in September 2022 all remaining pupils transferred to other schools and no new starters commenced the term in September.
3.4 In addition, the permanent Headteacher post became vacant on 31 August 2022 and from September 2022 temporary leadership has been in place. For the autumn term of 2022, this was provided by the Executive Headteacher of Foston, Terrington and Stillington schools, and covered both Hovingham and their federated school, St Hilda’s CE VC Primary School in Ampleforth. From January 2023, the Ryedale Learning Trust are providing leadership to Hovingham and St Hilda’s, Ampleforth.
4.0 CONSULTATION UNDERTAKEN AND ANALYSIS OF RESPONSES
4.1 The decision to consult on the proposal was taken by the Executive Member for Education, Learning and Skills on 18 October 2022.
4.2 A consultation paper setting out the proposal was sent to staff of the school as well as other interested parties and individuals. A copy of the consultation paper is attached as Appendix1 together with a list of the consultees at Appendix 2.
4.3 The consultation commenced on 31 October and was initially scheduled to close on 28 November. A public meeting was held on 9 November and was attended by officers of the Local Authority, the Headteacher, the Diocesan Director of Education, Governors, and a number of parents of children formerly on roll at Hovingham and other local stakeholders. 64 people were in attendance (a record of that meetingis attached as Appendix3).
Representations were made at the public meeting and to Full Council, that the consultation period should be extended to allow further time for stakeholders to investigate alternatives to closure. The Local Authority agreed to extend the consultation period for a further two weeks, until 12 December, and to move the decision on whether to proceed to the publication of Statutory Proposals and Notices until 24 January. This has enabled the decision on whether to proceed to be taken after the closing date for applications for Reception places for September 2023.
4.5 By the closing date of the consultation, 61 consultation responses had been received to the proposal and these are shown in Appendix 4. The following section of the report summarises the main issues raised in the consultation responses and at the public meeting.
5.0 ISSUES RAISED AND RESPONSES
5.1 Although almost all the responses to the consultation were not supportive of the proposal, one consultee did support the proposal on the grounds that it was the only available option due to a lack of pupil numbers. The comments against the proposal focused on the circumstances which had led to a decline in pupil numbers, and many consultees felt there was still a need for the school locally and that with new leadership the school was still viable. The key issues raised during the consultation process are listed below alongside relevant responses.
5.2 Comments on failure of leadership, governance and Local Authority in addressing the issue of declining numbers at the school
A large proportion of the responses to the consultation made reference to perceived failures by the previous leadership of the school been responsible for the fall in pupil numbers. These responses were typically critical of the Local Authority’s role in addressing these perceived issues.
Response:
The Local Authority provides support to leaders and governors of its maintained schools however, it is not in a position to replicate the roles carried out by leaders and governors. The Local Authority prioritises its school improvement support using a risk based approach and allocates adviser time in accordance with this. During the academic year 2021/22 the school was considered a category 4 school (1 = least risk and 4 = most risk) and over the 2021/22 academic year significant support was provided. LA Officers and the Diocesan Advisor held joint meetings and training with the Headteacher, Chair of Governors and the board on a number of occasions.
The Local Authority monitors pupil numbers at schools across the county using data from the termly ‘School Census’. Many rural primary schools in North Yorkshire have been experiencing falling rolls in recent years to some degree, and the fall in pupil numbers over time at Hovingham to October 2021 was not unique. It is the responsibility of the LA to, where possible, meet parental preference for admissions, and this includes processing applications for pupils moving between one school and another. This is not unusual and would not, in isolation, be a cause for concern.
In the case of Hovingham, the LA were made aware that leaders and governors were concerned about the decline in pupil numbers, and strategies to increase pupil numbers were discussed and a number of these were actioned including the Headteacher attending the Parent and Toddler Group in the village and also the school leadership attempting to commence wraparound care.
The Education (School Teachers’ Appraisal) (England) Regulations 2012 requires that the governing body of a school must:
- appraise the performance of the headteacher, assessing their performance of their role and responsibilities against the relevant standards and their objectives;
- appoint an external adviser for the purposes of providing it with advice and support in relation to the appraisal of the head teacher.
- assess the headteacher’s professional development needs and action needed to address them;
- make a recommendation on headteacher’s pay, where relevant;
- give the headteacher a written report of their appraisal which includes the assessments and recommendation above.
At Hovingham CE Primary School, governors met their obligations in this respect and the external adviser appointed by the governing body was provided by the Diocese of York.
The school had achieved a Good Ofsted inspection outcome in October 2017 and the report highlights strengths in leadership, vision, teaching, staff development, accountability and pupil outcomes. In addition, the enthusiasm, commitment and knowledge of governors was also praised.
However, governors feel that the constraints under which they have to operate are not well understood by the local community. Agreed minutes of governors’ meetings are published on the school websites, but any confidential minutes cannot be made public. Understandably this may give rise to the perception that ‘nothing was being done’.
There has been significant turnover amongst the Governing body, including at Chair level, in the last 5 years. The time and commitment to undertake the role of governor has led to some of this turn over. The governing body has also found it extremely difficult to recruit and retain new governors. The requirement to attend meetings, undertake lengthy training and governor monitoring of performance and curriculum delivery is demanding. In addition, to be expected to work through volumes of paperwork on policies, health and safety, safeguarding and so on, can be time consuming.
The Chair of Governors is typically the lead point of contact with the LA and other agencies as necessary and the LA has supported the succession planning, appointment, induction and development of the chair over a substantial period to mitigate against this turnover rate. The LA brokered a National Leader of Governance (NLG) to support the board, specifically the chairs, since autumn 2020; this involved pre-meeting support, attendance at meetings, and coaching and feedback between meetings. The LA school improvement team have included governance issues in their monitoring and support activities in school.
Governors have clarified that early indications about pupil numbers occurred at school level in spring 2018 when the former Headteacher reported a fluctuation in numbers creating difficulties in future planning. Reasons given for this were parental choice to consider admission applications to several schools, the mixed-age classes in a small school, and travel logistics for families.
From May 2019 school leaders and governors worked on a number of proposals to promote the two schools, this included the development of Forest Schools at Hovingham, more engagement with the Hovingham Estate, refreshing the school website and updating the starter packs, and running some open days – this led to six families becoming interested in St. Hilda’s and one family at Hovingham.
In March 2020 all schools closed due to the COVID pandemic Governance continued using MS TEAMS. In Autumn 2020, after school had re-opened, governors questioned what was being done to attract new pupils including ideas such as a ‘virtual tour’. Governors developed a communications plan to address communication with parents, community, staff and pupils and to support monitoring of the websites.
Following this work, a number of children transferred to other schools and although some parents appealed to governors about issues in the school, no formal complaints were forthcoming despite parents being signposted to the complaints process. By the end of autumn 2021, there was further drop in numbers and at this point the Chair of Governors raised issues and sought advice from the LA. Dialogue between the School and the LA continued throughout 2022.
In summary, Governors feel that Hovingham school’s leaders and governors were aware of the drop off in numbers and developed a range of strategic and practical measures to promote the schools. The pandemic effectively prevented many of the recommendations being put in place as intended and Covid is cited as the reason for some actions not being taken. Since then governors have accessed support from an experienced NLG to ensure effective governance has been developed and maintained at the school.
5.3 Comments that there is still a need for the school locally
Many of the comments received argued that that there was still a need for a school in Hovingham. Respondents mentioned the number of pupils living in the local area as well as the historical role the school has played as a part of the community.
Response
In October 2022 there were 44 pupils of primary age living within Hovingham’s catchment area, including the shared catchment area with St Hilda’s CE, and attending North Yorkshire maintained schools. These pupils currently attend a total of twelve North Yorkshire schools with the largest numbers attending Slingsby CP, St Benedict’s RC and Helmsley CP. The consultation period was extended as a result of representations made by stakeholders. The aim of this was to allow Members to be fully aware of any applications made by the closing date of 15 January to join Hovingham School next September, ahead of making any decision to proceed to the next stage of the process. As of 11 January there is only one application for September 2023 which lists Hovingham School as a preference and this places the school as third preference. It appears highly likely that the child would be allocated one of their higher preference schools. There have also been no applications made for ‘in year’ transfers into other year groups at Hovingham school. It therefore appears that from September 2023 the school would continue to have no pupils on roll. Should there be any change to the position regarding applications then this will be reported verbally to Executive on 24 January. The LA acknowledges that the school has been a long-standing institution in the community and it will be greatly missed by local people if it is to close.
5.4 Allocation of pupils to Hovingham
The response from the Hovingham Parish Council stated that there had been applications to attend Hovingham and suggested that the LA had intentionally not allocated pupils to the school in 2022 as a decision to close the school had already been made.
Response
This response has confused data on the total applications to the School with the number of first preferences the school had received. Under the admissions code the Admissions Authority (in this case the LA) must admit pupils to the applicants highest ranked school where spaces are available. All of the applicants to attend Hovingham School from September 2022 had ranked other schools above Hovingham in their order of preference. On the national offer date in April 2022 LA Officers were still supporting the Headteacher and Governing body to look at other options to increase pupil numbers. At that time the school was (and currently is) open to new registrations and any highest preference applications would have been admitted to the school.
5.5 Capacity of Local Schools
A number of responses to the consultation and attendees at the public meeting were concerned that without Hovingham CE VC Primary School there would be insufficient school places available in the area. In particular, responses also noted that Slingsby CP School is operating above its Net Capacity and questioned how it would accommodate pupils from Hovingham if it became the catchment school for part of the area.
Response
As noted in the report to Executive Members in October, across Hovingham CE VC Primary and the four nearest schools in adjoining catchment areas (St Hilda’s, St Benedict’s, Terrington and Slingsby) there are currently 134 surplus places of which 56 are at Hovingham. Closing Hovingham School would still leave a surplus of 78 places across the local area. Forecasts suggest that the number of pupils in the area is unlikely to increase significantly in the coming period.
Although Slingsby has typically been oversubscribed in recent years this is predominantly due to local popularity rather than an ‘in area’ need for places. In October 2021 there were 94 pupils on roll at Slingsby. However, only 28 of these were pupils living within the Slingsby catchment area. Significant numbers of pupils currently attend Slingsby from the catchment areas of Nawton CP, Amotherby CP and St Hilda’s CE.
In October 2021 there were 48 children of primary school age registered with a GP practice where their home address was recorded as being within Slingsby’s catchment area. However, only 39 of these pupils attended state schools in North Yorkshire. A number of pupils locally attend independent schools. Therefore, the data clearly shows that Slingsby School is a significant ‘net importer’ of pupils due to popularity, and therefore does have sufficient capacity to accommodate children from its own catchment area.
If Hovingham were to close and Slingsby were to experience more ‘in area’ demand for places from an enlarged catchment area, then applicants from that catchment area would receive priority for Reception places above ‘out of area’ applicants. For example, in Reception during October 2021, five of the 11 pupils were attending Slingsby from outside the catchment area and going forward with an enlarged catchment area we would expect that proportion could reduce.
There is currently capacity in all year groups at Terrington CE VA Primary School, which is the next nearest school. There are also places available in all year groups at St Hilda’s CE Primary School. Both of these schools have adjacent catchment areas to that of Hovingham CE Primary School and a Church of England designation.
5.6 Housing Developments
A high number of responses referenced potential new housing in Hovingham and the wider locality. They raised the issue of whether the area would be able to accommodate additional pupils from these developments if Hovingham School closed.
Response
North Yorkshire County Council works closely with Ryedale District Council, as the local planning authority, to ensure that there are sufficient school places available. An allowance of potential additional primary aged children generated by current housing permissions are included in the forecasts of future pupil numbers. Ryedale District Council has recently called for people to submit details of sites that could be used for development as part of a review of their Local Plan. These are not planning applications and the District Council has made no decisions on any of these sites.
5.7 Wraparound Care
Wraparound Care is term used to describe provision at a school which provides care for children outside of the core school day. Often this takes the form of a ‘breakfast club’ allowing parents to drop off pupils on the way to work or an ‘after school club’ which allows parents to pick up pupils after they have finished work. A high number of responses cited the lack of wraparound care as a reason that parents had not chosen to send their children to Hovingham School. One respondent asked why some schools could afford to run wraparound care whilst others could not. One respondent stated that they believed that the school leadership had attempted to run before school provision on two occasions but that it had not been viable on one occasion and on another occasion, they had been unable to recruit a supervisor for this provision.
Response
Wraparound care is not a statutory entitlement. Many schools do provide wraparound care but what this means in practice varies from school to school. Some schools that do not provide wraparound care have explored the possibility of offering before and after-school supervision of pupils but found that it has not been financially viable. A governor explained at the public meeting that this had been the case at Hovingham.
In summer 2020, as schools reopened following Covid restrictions, parents indicated that wraparound care was becoming an imperative when choosing a place for their child. Both Hovingham and St Hilda’s schools had a range of after school clubs which extended the day sufficiently for some parents. Governors asked for parent views on before- and after-school requirements and decided to offer before-school time at St. Hilda’s and additional after-school time, suitably staffed. The wish of governors was to provide affordable wraparound care for all parents who required it. In fact, parents did not take up the pre-school offer and very few took up the late afternoon offer so costs to the school exceeded the income. At Hovingham, finding suitable staffing was not resolved, so the offer could not be made.
5.8 Local Playgroup and School Nursery Provision
Many respondents and some attendees at the meeting commented that there is a local playgroup in the village that is well attended, and some commented that this should have been a good source of pupils for the school. Some responses also supported the inclusion of Nursery provision at the school to increase its viability.
Response
The local playgroup operates for one day a week and operates on the basis of parents/guardians bringing along their children and then supervising them during the session. Some combined sessions with Hovingham School and the playgroup group did take place, but a formal relationship was not developed.
This type of playgroup provides a resource for local people, but it is not a registered Ofsted pre-school and therefore quite different to an Early Years education nursery provision. Staffing levels and associated costs have to be taken into consideration when planning registered early years provision, and also whether there is sufficient demand to make it economical. School leaders always have to be aware of other local providers when setting up new nursery provision and, as some respondents acknowledged, there is a local provider at Wath Court.
However, in May 2022 as part of the plan to improve the position at the school in respect of pupil numbers Governors decided to consult on a proposal to introduce Nursery provision, and subsequently resolved to increase their age range to offer Nursery provision from September 2022 as part of a mixed age class. In the circumstances this could not happen, as by September 22 there were no statutory school age children on roll at the school.
5.9 Interim Financial Assistance
A high number of responses and attendees at the public meeting expressed a view that the LA should provide additional interim funding to support the continuation of Hovingham School until a point in the future where, in their view, pupil numbers would rise.
Response
The DfE have confirmed that if the LA were to fund the school, then only the lump sum and rates should be allocated. The school would not be eligible for sparsity funding as there are no pupils so the school could not meet the eligibility criteria.
It is the view of LA that the North Yorkshire Schools Forum would not approve expenditure on a school with no pupils. The LA would have to publicly state this is its formal position, and then seek approval from the Secretary of State to override the School Forum’s decision.
It is also the case that any request for funding for one school to remain open may have consequences/ considerations for other cases of potential school closure. The local authority maintains a number of schools who are in an accumulated deficit position and/or are projecting to be in a financial deficit position. In viable school positions, the local authority requires local governing bodies to address any deficit and develop a recovery plan to operate within the funds and resources available.
Awarding funding to a school with no pupils, and not awarding funding to other schools in financial difficulty or who are geographically vital, and have pupils on roll, risks setting a precedent that will not gain universal agreement and may result in potential future liabilities in other potential school closures
5.10 Catchment Areas
As part of the consultation the LA invited comments on two different options for catchment area changes if Hovingham School closes. Of the responses received only three specifically mentioned the catchment proposals, and of those all three preferred option 2. One of these comments was from an existing Governor, one was from the Governors at Foston and Terrington Schools and the third was from Ryedale Learning Trust. One comment which opposed the closure suggests that the catchment should be widened to support an increase of numbers at the school. Another commented that the catchment area should be made smaller to force people to use the local schools.
Response
There was limited comment upon the two options as part of the consultation, but Option 2 was preferred by those who did respond. Officers are of the opinion that this is the more appropriate of the two options and the recommendation below reflects that. With regard to suggestions that the catchments should change size to support the school to remain open this would not have made any material difference to the number of pupils attending Hovingham School. Parents from inside or outside the Hovingham catchment can apply at any time for places at the school for their children.
5.11 Other Options
Although many responses clearly wanted the school to remain open, some responses offered specific suggestions of changes to models of working which they thought may support the school to remain open. Several responses suggested that a closer working relationship with Slingsby CP would benefit Hovingham. One specifically suggested that Slingsby and Hovingham sites could form Infant and Junior sites in a shared arrangement. Another response suggested that an Infant and Junior arrangement could be set up but between the existing Federation of St Hilda’s and Hovingham.
Response
No responses to the consultation have been received from local schools offering an alternative arrangement to allow Hovingham School to remain open. The only specific option, the Ryedale Learning Trust’s offer of support, is addressed below in paragraph 5.12. The specific suggestions of splitting Infant and Junior provision across two remote sites are unlikely to be supported by parents currently accessing provision on one site at neighbouring schools.
5.12 Ryedale Learning Trust
The Ryedale Learning Trust came forward during the consultation process to offer support to the Governors at St Hilda’s and Hovingham Schools. The Trust publicised and then held an open event for local parents and carers in Hovingham on 12 December, which was supported by an LA Admissions Officer. The Trust is providing leadership of the schools from January 2023 and have given both schools Associate Membership of their trust. The Trust wants to bring both Hovingham and St Hilda’s into their Multi Academy Trust and believes it could support both schools to become ‘schools of choice’ in the area. Their response to the consultation (Appendix 5) sets out the offer they would seek to provide at Hovingham from September 2023. Their response, whilst very positive about the impact they feel they could make, notes that at present they have some interest in Nursery places at Hovingham from September 2023 but none for the Reception year group. They also acknowledge that their proposal will not be feasible without transitional funding. RLT have confirmed that since the start of this term they have continued to promote the school and offered to meet with any interested families.
5.13 Rural school
Several consultees noted that Hovingham was a rural school and one consultee felt that the County Council had a lack of understanding of rural schools and the importance of rural schools to the rural communities.
Response
North Yorkshire County Council probably maintains more rural schools than any other local authority and works extensively with rural schools and their communities. The presumption against the closure of rural schools is examined in paragraph 8.2 below. All statutory guidance has been followed.
5.14 Home to school transport costs
One of the consultees raised the cost of home to school transport and increased carbon footprint if the school closed.
Response
These two issues are addressed either in paragraph 7.2 below or in Appendix 6
5.15 Possibility of reopening a school at Hovingham
There have been enquiries about if closure went ahead, what the possibility would be of reopening a school at Hovingham in the future.
Response
Closing and subsequently reopening a school would follow the process for establishing new schools. There are various routes to potentially opening a new school. All require some demonstration of need. The DfE Guidance, Opening and closing maintained schools, Statutory guidance for proposers and decision-makers (Nov 2019), sets out the factors for proposers to consider when proposing a new school, and states:
Proposers should demonstrate parental demand for the new school places and the type of provision being proposed, the quality and diversity of provision available in the local area, and the impact of the new places on existing educational provision in the local area.
5.16 Conclusion
It is the view of LA Officers that none of the issues raised as part of the consultation affect the fundamental reasons for consulting on closure as set out in the October report to Members. The school currently has no pupils on roll and there are no pending applications for places at the school. Officers have outlined above that the school will receive no funding for the next academic year and the LA is not in a position to approve any additional funding. It is clear from the response from the Ryedale Learning Trust that their proposal to continue the operation of the school would be predicated on the school receiving additional funding. For these reasons officers recommend that Members proceed with the closure process.
6.0 PROPOSAL
6.1 The proposal is to cease to maintain Hovingham CE VC Primary School from 31 March 2023.
6.2 The proposals include that from 1 April 2023 the parishes of Gilling East, Grimstone, Cawton and the smaller part of Coulton parish which currently form a part of a shared catchment area between Hovingham CE and St Hilda’s CE will remain part of the St Hilda’s CE catchment area. The parish of Stonegrave which was part of the discrete catchment area for Hovingham CE would also become part of the St Hilda’s CE catchment area. The parish of Scackleton and the larger part of the parish of Coulton which were part of Hovingham’s discrete catchment area will become part of the catchment area for Terrington CE VA Primary School. The parish of Fryton and the larger part of Hovingham Parish which formed part of the Hovingham catchment area will become part of the catchment area for Slingsby Community Primary School.
6.3 The full statutory proposal is set out in Appendix 7, Section A. This includes details about pupil numbers, alternative schools, impact on the community and travel implications.
6.4 The proposed timetable would be:
3 February 2023 Publication of Statutory Proposals
3 March 2023 Closing date for representations
(4 weeks as prescribed in regulations and cannot be shortened or lengthened)
21 March 2023 Final decision by Executive
31 March 2023 Proposed closure date
7 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
7.1 School revenue funding
Any annual savings to the Dedicated Schools Grant arising from the closure, if approved, would remain within the ring-fenced Dedicated Schools Grant as part of the funding for all schools. Any surplus revenue or capital balances would be allocated in line with the Closing School Accounting Policy.
7.2 Transport costs
As there are currently no pupils at Hovingham CE VC School there would be no immediate transportation costs. Any pupils living in the current Hovingham catchment area applying for school places at other local schools after the closure would be assessed under the home to school transport policy at the appropriate time. As such future transport costs cannot be estimated.
8.0 LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
8.1 The School Organisation regulations and guidance[1] cover the processes involved in school closures. Careful regard has been paid to these provisions.
8.2 As Hovingham CE VC Primary School is designated as a rural school there are some particular considerations for the proposers of any closure. There is a presumption against the closure of rural schools. This does not mean rural schools should not close. It means that the ‘case for closure should be strong and the proposal must be clearly in the best interests of educational provision in the area’. Proposers must demonstrate that they have considered the following:
· Educational standards at the school and the effect on standards at other schools
· Alternatives to closure such as federation or academy status
· The availability and cost of transport to other schools
· Any potential increase to car use
· The impact on the community
These factors are considered in the draft statutory proposal, attached as Appendix 7.
9.0 HUMAN RIGHTS IMPLICATIONS
9.1 There are no Human Rights issues in relation to this decision.
10.0 EQUALITIES IMPLICATIONS
10.1 An Equality Impact Assessment has been undertaken in respect of this proposal and is attached (Appendix 8).
11.0 CLIMATE CHANGE IMPLICATIONS
A Climate Change Impact Assessment has been undertaken in respect of this proposal and is attached (Appendix 6).
12.0 NEXT STEPS
12.1 It is proposed to publish proposals and statutory notices on 3 February 2023. The proposals would be published on the County Council’s website and displayed at the main entrances to the school. The statutory notice would also be published in a local newspaper. This process would provide four weeks for representations to be made to the Local Authority, by 3 March 2023.
12.2 The Executive agreed a model for decision-making on school organisation proposals on 25 September 2007. If approval is given to publish statutory proposals and notices, it is proposed that a final decision is taken by the Executive on 21 March 2023. Drafts of these proposals and statutory notice form Appendix 7 of this report.
13.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
13.1
i) Statutory proposals and notices be published on 1 February proposing to cease to maintain Hovingham CE VC Primary School with effect from 31 March 2023.
iii) The Executive schedule taking a final decision on these proposals on 21 March 2023.
Stuart Carlton
Corporate Director – Children and Young People’s Service
Report prepared by Matt George, Strategic Planning Team
Background papers
Report to Executive Members, Children and Young People’s Service, 18 October 2022
List of Appendices
Appendix 1: Consultation Paper
Appendix 2: List of the Consultees
Appendix 3: Notes of the Public Meeting
Appendix 4: Consultation Responses
Appendix 5: Response from Ryedale Learning Trust
Appendix 6: Climate Change Impact Assessment
Appendix 7: Full draft statutory proposals and draft Statutory Notice
Appendix 8: Equality Impact Assessment
[1] School Organisation (Establishment and Discontinuance of Schools) Regulations 2013 and Department for Education Opening and closing maintained schools. Statutory guidance for proposers and decision-makers (November 2019).