The decision was taken in order to ensure high quality sustainable educational accommodation for children and young people with social emotional and mental health special needs in Herefordshire. Matters taken into account when taking the decision, were as follows –
•Condition of the current buildings at the Brookfield School is adequate, apart from the building inhabited by the Arrow cohort of Brookfield students which is offsite, temporary and of poor quality.
•Compliance of the current buildings and of the site is poor for all age phases
•Future maintenance liability is highly likely for the off-site building
•Consultation with head teachers and governors showed recognition of the need for improvements at the Brookfield School.
•Consultation with parents and carers of children and young people with SEND showed recognition of the need for improvements at the Brookfield School
•Capital funds previously allocated and spent on improvement at the Brookfield School are not equitable with those spent at other SEND settings in the county.
•There is potential for the government funding to be matched with other identified funding in the Herefordshire council capital programme to enable a high quality project that will resolve compliance and quality issues in a strategic and sustainable way.
The decision taken impacts positively on the achievement of the principles set out in the published Herefordshire Schools Capital Investment Strategy pages 10 and 11.

The decision was made that the special provision fund (£500k) allocated to Herefordshire Local Authority by the government, would be spent on a project to improve the quality of accommodation at the Brookfield Special School, subject to a suitable feasibility study and high level costing exercise. In addition the decision was taken to put forward a business case to Cabinet for allocation of funding already listed in the capital programme for use at Brookfield School (1.76m), to add to the special provision fund to achieve a high quality strategic improvement project.
Although the Brookfield School is an academy, the criteria for the allocation of the special provision fund clearly states that spending on any type of setting, including academies, is permitted. In addition, the council has a statutory responsibility to commission educational provision for children and young people with an EHCP for SEND that is suitable for their age, ability, aptitude and SEN. The Brookfield School is the only in-county setting that provides for CYP with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) as their primary need. Investment in this school is needed so that the council may fulfill its statutory responsibility to those CYP with SEMH. If the setting fails to be fit for purpose those pupils would need to be placed out of county, leading to a significantly increased cost of placement. This proposed investment will mitigate the risk of an increase in out of county placements in the future. It also ensures that the current need for temporary accommodation for a cohort of pupils with SEMH will be removed.

When selecting the project to benefit from the special provision fund, all other settings in Herefordshire offering educational provision for children and young people with EHCPs were considered. The Brookfield School was selected based upon information outlined in the consultation section above.