Agenda item

Report of the Director of Children’s Services. To be presented by the Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families.

This paper seeks to report on the outcome of the six week pre-publication consultation on the options for the future of Tiverton Primary School and seek agreement to move to the next stage of the process, the publication of a statutory proposal to close the school.

The Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families introduced the report. It was explained that there was a need to ensure that every child and young person, wherever they live in the borough, deserved an excellent education and that the Council were committed to supporting our schools to continue to deliver high-quality teaching, learning and support across Haringey. In recent years, as widely reported, Haringey, like many other London local authority (LA) areas, had been experiencing a significant decrease in pupil numbers, which caused some schools to face serious and irreversible financial and sustainability pressures. It was stressed that the critical London wide factors of lower birth rates; the cap on rent benefits; families leaving the capital as a result of the housing crisis; Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a reduction in demand for primary school places in the borough which was no fault of the Council or our schools. It was noted that school leaders and the Council were working to mitigate the risks from falling rolls where schools fall into financial deficit. Haringey officers were working with schools locally to progress a number of approaches, with a focus on preventing the escalation of risk to those in scope for potential closure or amalgamation. The approaches used included measures to reduce costs; such as restructuring school staffing levels, reducing the amount of available support staff, limiting extracurricular activity such as school trips, ‘vertical grouping’ by combining different year groups in some schools, formally reducing and capping reception and in-year classes, and for some schools the need to agree financial deficit recovery plans with the local authority.

It was explained that the Council had a statutory duty to ensure there were sufficient high quality school places for our children, and that places were planned effectively. This financial pressure had a significant impact on schools and threatens the stability and quality of our education system. It was stressed that the Council must continue to ensure that every single child had access to an excellent education that allowed them to fulfil their potential and achieve their ambitions.

The Cabinet Member explained that significant concerns were raised about the school’s long-term sustainability, risks to the school’s financial viability and its ability to attract to new pupils. The latter is, in large part, due to a declining birth rate and the recent inspection outcome. It was explained that, having undertaken a full pre-publication consultation to identify a best solution, the Cabinet Member recommended to Cabinet that the Council now proceeds to publishing the relevant statutory notice on the proposal to close Tiverton Primary School. It was explained that, if the final decision was to progress with closure, that the Council would ensure that all families of displaced pupils were well-supported via the in-year admissions process to transition to an alternative school. It was explained that there were children on the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) register attending Tiverton Primary that would need to be well supported, including 12 pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). It was explained that the Council had undertaken a focussed meeting attended by SEND colleagues for these families and by the time a final decision is made, all parent/carers of pupils with an EHCP will have undergone a review meeting to evaluate their child’s progress at the school and to plan next steps, including the possibility of an alternative provision.

The Cabinet Member stressed that the school’s staff’s wellbeing and future security is very important, noting that the Council would ensure that all staff receive individualised support and be subject to the normal redeployment procedures.

In response to comments and questions from Cllr Cawley-Harrison, the following information was shared:

• The Cabinet Member explained that the Council had put forward a warning notice to the previous Board of Governors the Board of Governors of the school had resigned due to significant deficit at the school. The Council had since appointed an interim board to administrate the school following their departure.
  
  
• Officers explained that the Seven Sisters Primary School, which was benchmarked in the report, had been relaunched at South Grove and it’s the finances were significantly more stabilised. It was stressed that the number of pupils were still falling and that the status of the school was stable at present.
  
  
• Officers explained that it was the decision of families which school children attended and that the School Admissions Team were working with families to get their children into schools that they desired wherever possible. It was explained that some pupils had moved as friendship groups. It was additionally noted that children with additional needs were worked with by the School Admissions Team to ensure that their needs were met.

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet:

1. Considered the feedback received from the pre-statutory consultation on options for the future of Tiverton Primary School.
   
   
2. Noted the reasons for not favouring any of the other options consulted on.
    
3. Agreed to the publication of a statutory notice to close Tiverton Primary School from September 2025. If agreed, there follows a four-week period of statutory consultation, which will be the final opportunity for people and organisations to express their views about the proposal.

Reasons for decision

Following years of growth, the number of primary-aged children joining Haringey primary schools had been in steady decline since 2014, a trend observed across London. Primary pupil rolls in Haringey had reduced by over 2,000 in just 5 years: 21,300 in 2019 to 19,100 in 2024 (January school census data), and pupil numbers were forecast to continue falling until at least 2028.

Tiverton Primary School was a substantive two-form entry (FE) community school maintained by the local authority and located at Pulford Road, N15 6SP. Since 2019, there had been a gradual decline in pupils on roll at the school. Due to this sustained fall in rolls over the last several years, there was concern from the local authority that the school was at risk of becoming financially unviable and vulnerable in the context of a Requires Improvement Ofsted judgement.

School funding was primarily determined by the number of children on roll, and falling rolls equated to reduced funding. This had meant that more and more schools were facing serious financial pressures after year-on-year declines in their rolls, resulting in smaller one-form entry schools such as Tiverton Primary School falling into financial deficit. This had not just been felt by Haringey schools—many primary schools across London and England ended 2023-24 in financial deficit.

The Council had a duty of care to ensure children in its schools were able to receive a good education and access the full curriculum. A school with a declining roll would have been challenged to do this effectively because of inevitable financial pressures from reduced funding. Reduced funding could have impacted the efficient running of schools, financial stability, and education standards.

It was a principle of the Council to protect Haringey’s high quality of education, and this might have been compromised where the cost of teaching staff, equipment, and enrichment activities became unaffordable. The link between pupil numbers and school funding meant that it was not always feasible to keep a school operating to guarantee the standard of education families and pupils deserved.

Alternative options considered and not favoured

The following options had been considered and presented to stakeholders as part of the pre-publication consultation carried out in November and December 2024:

• No change, i.e., continuation of the current strategy for school improvement without any further action to address falling local rolls
• Federation
• Amalgamation, resulting in the closure of Tiverton Primary School with the displaced pupils being accommodated by another community school
• Whether South Grove Primary, as the nearest community school with the same type and characteristics as Tiverton Primary, could have been the best option for an amalgamation/merger
• Closure
  
  

No change and continuation of current strategy

This had been a highly cost-inefficient option and not sustainable. The school had a deficit budget, and there was a significant risk that the deficit balance would have increased at a greater rate due to falling rolls. The Council had a responsibility to ensure the efficient use of public money.

A school with falling rolls would have had significantly less funding, and this directly affected staffing numbers (both teaching and support staff), resources, equipment, expenditure, maintenance work, and extracurricular activities for children. In time, a school affected by income loss would almost inevitably have seen performance and standards fall. It had been the duty of the Council to ensure that the quality of education for children and stability for teaching and support staff took priority. The operational challenges affecting schools with falling rolls would have continued to increase, with a negative impact on pupils and no systemic solution.

This option was not preferred as it did not provide a long-term sustainable solution to falling local demand and further left other local schools vulnerable because of the current and projected surplus of places across PA3. Furthermore, taking no action to address the issues affecting a school with falling rolls was not an acceptable option available to the Council.

Federation

In considering federation, there had to be clear benefits that such an arrangement would bring for children, including, but not limited to, raising standards, improving the breadth and depth of education delivery, and increasing opportunities for outstanding outcomes. Federated schools operated in collaboration with each other, sharing senior staff and possibly governing bodies, which allowed them to maximize good educational practice while achieving economies of scale.

Federation would have required full commitment from the schools involved and a shared vision for the development of the federation. For this option to have been feasible, Tiverton Primary School would have been required to work with the local authority to identify another school that would have seen the benefits in federation. With low numbers of pupils on roll and uncertainty regarding its future, it was highly unlikely that another school would have deemed it viable to federate with Tiverton Primary School. To date, there had been no interest expressed by any school to federate with Tiverton Primary School.

Although the Council had a role in supporting schools to explore federation, federation was ultimately a decision made independently by the governing bodies of schools. This option was rejected because under a federation, schools would have remained as separate organisations, and this would not have addressed the decline in numbers on roll at Tiverton Primary or the risk of financial unviability.

Amalgamation – closure of Tiverton Primary with displaced pupils being accommodated by another school such as South Grove Primary School

An amalgamation could only have been achieved by closing one or more schools and providing spaces for displaced children in another ‘host’ school. This option would have involved the host school retaining its original DfE school number, as it was not technically considered a new school. However, following the amalgamation process, governors had the option to rename the school to create a new identity for the merged schools.

The report presented to Cabinet in October 2024 explored the option of an amalgamation with South Grove Primary (previously known as Seven Sisters) due to the similar type and characteristics of the two community schools located in close proximity to one another, minimizing travel disruption, but also due to both schools having a high surplus and high unused capacity in their buildings. It was important to note that only South Grove Primary had expressed an interest in an amalgamation; no other primary school had come forward.

An amalgamation between Tiverton Primary and South Grove on the South Grove site had initially been proposed based on pupil numbers at the time and the fabric of the building, which was in better condition. Seven Sisters appeared to have been able to accommodate all pupils from Tiverton Primary school.

The drop in pupil numbers experienced by both schools in recent years made this option feasible in terms of pupil numbers; however, this was no longer favoured due to the financial position of both schools. At that time, Tiverton Primary School and Seven Sisters had both budgeted for a deficit position at the close of 2024/25.

It was important to note that when a maintained school closed, any outstanding deficit fell to the Council to be written off. However, when two schools amalgamated, the newly formed school inherited the school deficit. Due to falling rolls in PA3, there was a risk that the school deficit balances could have increased at a greater rate for both schools, impacting school funding and causing greater pressure on in-year budgets up to the point of a merger and beyond. This would ultimately have resulted in increased financial liability for the Council as schools at risk moved toward or increased their deficit position.

An amalgamation was also not considered a viable option, as it was unlikely to have led to sufficiently stabilising numbers of pupils at the newly amalgamated school. Since June 2024, the vast majority of families leaving Tiverton Primary School had opted to transfer to other local schools near their home address. Records showed that most leavers (19 pupils) had transferred to Woodberry Down Community School in Hackney. A small number of families had expressed an interest in South Grove, and a significant number of pupils had successfully transferred to alternative Haringey schools.

Although the short distance (0.6 miles away from South Grove), which was a 13-minute walk between the two schools, had been one of the key reasons a merger was explored, based on the recent evidence of pupil movement, there had been no guarantee that families would opt to transfer their child(ren) to South Grove. The trend so far pointed to pupils transferring elsewhere, and there were sufficient places at other local schools to accommodate pupils.

The option of an amalgamation with South Grove was therefore rejected based on the reasons outlined above. To date, no other school had expressed an interest in an amalgamation with Tiverton Primary, and there were none located near enough with sufficient places to accommodate all displaced pupils.

Full and immediate closure

This was the option favoured in this report. The local authority had a statutory duty to ensure the efficient use of resources. Maintaining a school with a declining roll could not have been considered efficient, given that there were surplus places in other local schools. The DfE advised that school closure decisions should be taken when there was no demand for the school in the medium to long term and there were sufficient places elsewhere to accommodate displaced children.

There were sufficient primary school places in the local area that could have provided a suitable alternative for displaced pupils. A high surplus of primary school places in the local area meant that other alternatives could have been offered for pupils at Tiverton who wished to go elsewhere.

All children presently attending Tiverton Primary and all applicants to Reception for September 2025 could have been accommodated in alternative schools within a reasonable distance. An analysis of in-year vacancy information of schools in and immediately bordering PA3, where Tiverton was located, showed that there were more than sufficient vacant places across all year groups (Reception to Year 6) across 14 Haringey schools within 1 mile of the school.

There would also have been other schools in Hackney bordering PA3 which had vacancies within 1 mile of the school, and families might have wished to attend schools across a wider distance based on their home locations (i.e., local schools nearer to their home address). Pupils in Year 6 were not included as this cohort of pupils would have been transferring to secondary school and therefore not impacted by the proposals set out in this report.

It was expected that schools in the local area and beyond would still have been carrying a high number of vacancies at the end of the academic year 2024-25, meaning that an alternative local school could have been offered to any family that wanted one.

All Haringey schools in the local area were judged by Ofsted to be ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding.’ Pupils joining other local schools from Tiverton Primary would have contributed towards the improved sustainability of the receiving schools, as it would have led to increased pupil numbers and, in turn, their financial income. A closure would therefore have helped support the sustainability and viability of other schools in PA3 by enabling neighbouring schools to increase their pupil numbers.

The Council was financially liable for any maintained school deficits and had to decide each year whether to continue funding a school in deficit. When a maintained school closed, the Council was responsible for the debt carried by the school at the point of closure. If the Council did not take action to reduce the number of primary school places to align with the current and projected demand, it knowingly took on increased financial burden and responsibility at a time when it was required to find substantial savings.