Like most cities, Derby is in desperate need of school places for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Due to the lack of local capacity, many children are being placed outside of the City resulting in additional expense to the Council.

The best option for most children with SEND is to be educated within a mainstream school environment. This can be expensive requiring specialist teaching skills, custom room layouts, and new equipment; all of which needs to be managed, carefully and professionally, by the Council and the Academy.

The Department for Education (DforE) has produced a detailed process for managing this transition ; “Making significant changes to an academy. Non-statutory guidance on collaborative school place planning and making organisational changes to academies”. This mandates a series of conditions and approvals with the fundamental one being a minimum level of OFSTED ratings:

“It is expected that, where possible, additional new places will only be provided at schools with strong performance records, particularly taking into account Ofsted sub judgements on leadership and management and quality of education. Schools that are not currently performing strongly should only be expanded where there are no other viable options.”

Part 2 of the DforE document – my emphases

The process starts with an application which needs to be approved well in advance of places being offered to parents/children as options

“‘Significant changes’ are those which may impact on the local school environment by creating, changing or removing the number and/or type of school places and/or where they are offered. Academy trusts must follow the required significant change process in advance of the change being made. Failure to do so will constitute a breach of the academy trust’s funding agreement, which could result in further action taken by the department to address the breach. Applications should be submitted in good time, to allow for processing, to ensure that a decision can be made well in advance of when the change is planned to take effect”

Part 2 of the DforE document – my emphases

Between 2 September 2024 and 4 November 2024, Derby City Council signed 5 Service Level Agreements with Harmony Trust Ltd to provide Enhanced Resource provisions in each of the 5 schools. These agreements commenced, on signature, lasting for 3 years.

On 13 November 2024, Derby City Council approved capital spend of £1.671m to make changes to 5 Harmony Trust Ltd’s schools in Derby (Alvaston, Ash Croft, Cottons Farm, Lakeside, Village)

“The capital projects will enable the delivery of 70 additional enhanced resource provision placements for children with Education, Health, and Care (EHC) Plans.”

Cabinet report 13/11/24 Item 10. s 2.5

In November 2024, Harmony Trust Ltd published a proposal about how the new SEND Provisions would be implemented. The report recognised that 3 of its schools did not meet the DforE minimum OFSTED rating and “Required Improvement”

“Where an academy currently has an overall judgement of Requires Improvement from Ofsted Inspections, we are able to evidence that the academy is making strong progress towards its improvement priorities. Our internal self-evaluation is that Cottons Farm Primary Academy is now within Good and that both Lakeside Primary and Alvaston Junior Academy are making strong progress toward Good for the Quality of Education and are well within Good for Personal Development and Behaviour and Attitudes. Leadership capacity in each of these academies is strong and drawn from highly experienced school leaders with a track record in leading improvement.”

Harmony Trust proposal November 2024

The DforE process does not allow for self-evaluation – it states that where schools are under-performing then the local Authority should seek “viable options”

As at 20 December 2024 Harmony Trust Ltd had submitted “Significant Change” applications for just 1 (Village) of the 5 schools; it was awaiting approval.

Despite the fact that none of the places had been approved through the DforE significant change process, SEND children in Derby were being formally nominated for places in the Harmony schools through their Education, Health and Care Plans. (EHCP)

Harmony Trust subsequently submitted the remaining applications and these were discussed at the DforE East Midlands Advisory Board on 26 February 2025. However the conclusions were not what Harmony Trust, nor Derby City Council would have wanted.

“Greater clarity is required on the proposed implementation date of the formal designation of the SEND unit and Enhanced Resoure Bases (ERB).

This proposal includes the addition of an ERB at 3 academies which are all judged requires improvement by Ofsted in at least 3 subcategories (including leadership and management and quality of education) at latest inspection. The trust and local authority view is that Inclusion Hubs bring capacity to academies, in particular those with Ofsted requires improvement sub judgements. In line with published significant change guidance, the department must be assured that Derby Local Authority applied a rigorous process for exploring what other viable options were available in schools with strong performance records.“

There is no public evidence that Derby City Council “applied a rigorous process” and “explored viable options“

This now seems to leave some children with SEND in the City without an approved school placement that fully supports their Special Educational Needs!

Comment

The DforE “Significant Change” process is very clear.

The Cabinet paper detailed the obligation in the Legal Implications section of the paper

“8.3 All schools involved in the schemes relating to the creation of enhanced resource provisions set out in this report are Academy schools and will follow “The Making Significant Changes to an Academy” guidance”

So why wasn’t it followed?

There was no mention, in the Cabinet paper, that capital spend was being recommended for schools which were not approved as “viable options” by the DforE, nor how the Council had convinced themselves that there were no other options in the City.

In fact it was several months before Harmony Trust had even submitted the applications to seek approval.

This exposes the reality behind how decisions are being made in Derby City Council. The Cabinet “approves” a decision based on Officer “recommendation”. It assumes that the elected Cllrs on the Cabinet have enough knowledge to ask challenging questions; it assumes that the Officers will provide ALL pertinent information to make an informed decision.

The Report Author, Sharon Buckby, Director of Learning, Inclusion and Skills, should have clearly stated that full DforE approval had not been given (or even applied for) and that 3 of the schools did not even comply with the basic OFSTED rating requirements. In theory, the report should have stated that there was a very real risk that the capital funding may need to go to different schools. All of which suggests that the report, and capital funding decision was premature.

Officers clearly tried to short cut the process, and failed to fully brief Cllrs.

Harmony Trust was naive in thinking that self-certification of OFSTED rating improvements was remotely legitimate but, no doubt, had a keen eye on the additional funding that they would receive.

To what end?

Upset, confusion and delay to the education of some of the most vulnerable children in Derby.