The Brookfield Special School is an academy situated in Hereford on two sites – the main site being close to the racecourse and the second located across the City in a mobile classroom close to the inner ring road (approximately 20 minutes apart by car). It has both primary and secondary phases. It is Herefordshire’s only social, emotional & mental health (SEMH) special school.
The premises are inadequate – A small group of the most vulnerable and challenging pupils are currently accommodated offsite in a temporary demountable building of poor quality and unsuitable layout on Symonds Street. The use of this building is subject to a temporary planning permission which requires the mobile building to be removed by 16 April 2023.There are no female pupil toilets in the secondary building and as there is now demand for female places at the school (although this has not been the case previously), this poses an equality issue. All current classrooms are small and there are only 9 as opposed to the 10 classrooms described as necessary in BB104 (Establishes non-statutory area guidelines for buildings and grounds at special schools and alternative provision). There are no indoor sports facilities despite physical education being a statutory requirement of the national curriculum.
This decision supports the Cabinet decision, on 21 July 2022, to accept of the Department for Education (DfE) funding offer and move forward with The Brookfield Special School project.
There are a number of requirements to allow the progression of this decision in a timely manner.
The three required tasks needed to start the project are:
1. Negotiate and agree the surrender of the current lease with the Greyhound Rugby Club (GRC) and take forward a new lease.
2. Commission a contractor to divert an existing gas pipe that currently runs through the proposed construction site. (subject to approval of the GRC, legally documented by a license and works agreement.)
3. To re-engage consultants to review and update the existing tender documents and design Stage 4 and carry out procurement for design and build.
This decision is for Part 3 above, re-engagement of consultants. Other parts will require other decisions.
We need to re-engage the consultants, who were appointed following a competitive tender process, to prepare the original tender documents, to review and update the documents ready for re-tender. At the outset of the project, design and cost consultants were appointed as part of the delivery team. During the ongoing negotiations with the DfE regarding funding, the consultant’s contracts were temporarily paused and now require to be re-engaged. This will allow for a prompt tendering process which can be done in parallel to the gas works, again saving time and additional cost.
It is intended that once the transfer of the Brookfield Special School to the MET, the funding provided from Capital Development budget will be reimbursed from the funding allocated to the Brookfield Special School capital improvement budget.