Special Partnership Trust

24th July 2024

Decision to join Special Partnership Trust 

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to inform you that after careful consideration and consultation with parents/carers, staff, unions, and wider stakeholders the Mill Water governors have voted in favour of joining the Special Partnership Trust.

I would like to express my gratitude to those parents/carers who actively participated in the consultations, either by attending sessions or sending in their questions via email. Your input has been invaluable throughout this process.

Following a positive response from the DfE Advisory Board, the decision to join the Trust has been made. If all goes as planned, we aim to formally join the Special Partnership Trust in the Autumn term of 2024.

I will provide you with further updates in September regarding the progress of this transition. Should you have any queries or require additional information, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Thank you for your ongoing support and collaboration.

Yours sincerely,

Sarah Pickering
Headteacher

 

PARENT CONSULTATION MEETING 

QUESTIONS FROM 12th JULY 2024

Will we be expected to buy new school uniform?
No. There will be no change to the uniform or branding of the school. We are looking for Mill Water to bring the things that make it unique to the Trust. You might see a small flower logo being added to the school sign and on the website. Staff will see it on their payslips but that will be the extent of the Trust’s rebranding.

Will there be new school policies that we will be expected to meet?
No. The school will bring all its current policies with it. We are not looking to impose anything that will change the values and ethos of the school. This is a strong school and we want you to bring with you what makes it so successful.

What is the difference between Partner Schools and Academies?
Devon County asked us, SPT (Special Partnership Trust), to take on a failing Independent School, Magdalen Court in Exeter. Legally, because they are independent, they cannot become part of the Academy Trust, so we have formed a Partnership with them. They are close in their ethos with the Trust. It is worth noting that if Mill Water were to join SPT, your Headteacher would sit on the Leadership Team to form Trust policy. These are the Headteachers who will go on to run the Trust in future.

Schools that have ‘improved’, what does that look like?
We have to use the Ofsted Framework but I don’t think this shows improvement. We look at the culture of the organisation, quality of the curriculum, approach to parents and staff. We have a tracker that is produced monthly looking for barriers and how we can remove them. We think this is a pragmatic and simple approach. There is a survey to start the process.

What does this look like for Mill Water?
CPD (Continuous Professional Development) for middle leaders; Safeguarding. It may be good but we don’t want to rest on our laurels. We want to be that critical friend and promote peer review. It is a two-way flow. The Headteacher’s termly performance report will monitor progress.

Is this a change to what is being done now?
We commission annual surveys of pupils, staff and parents, making this local to the school. Each school retains the Governing Body and retains the Headteacher. It is vitally important to us that each school retains its uniqueness.

Who leads, Governing Body or Chair?
The Governing Body has three roles under our structure:

    • Quality of the offer
    • Wellbeing of pupils and staff
    • Representing the school in the local community

All three are critical to enhancing the curriculum.

Will there be an impact on staffing? There must be duplication of admin work?
Yes, there will be duplication of tasks but Mill Water has excellent staff with excellent skills. Tasks may move but without devaluing the setting. One of our schools, Brunel School in Torquay, is a taker at the moment but when it hits ‘Good’ it is expected to contribute.

What is the financial risk to Mill Water of joining a Trust that relies on Government funding?
Accountability for finance moves from the individual Headteacher to the Trust. We will support across the base.

What if there is not enough Government funding? What can be done about it?
I don’t think there is enough per pupil funding here at Mill Water. This is an ongoing conversation we are having with Donna Mason (Chief Executive, Devon County Council). The system is at best fractured or more probably broken. I fear that there isn’t enough money for SEND. The SPT is negotiating with County leads across four counties and with Health and Social Care.

How are these negotiations going?
SPT have taken the decision to stop performing health tasks across our Cornish schools. Things like tracheostomy care, deep suctioning etc. Over the past 12 to 18 months school nurses have been withdrawn, which had left unqualified TAs to do these procedures with no medical supervision. This is not a viable position for us.

Does this mean that those children are at home?
No, there is funding in Health. It is just that our staff are not delivering that care. We are taking a stand to ensure that the proper care is given by the funding authority.

The pension scheme is in deficit, how does that impact?
Pensions will always be in deficit because of the inherited structure from County Councils. Staff costs are high but Outreach will offset costs.

Energy costs are high and not very eco. What plans do you have to change this?
Some of our estate is Grade 2 listed, which presents challenges. We do have to become more energy efficient. Costs at Brunel are very high, but this is a new building. We need to understand why this might be. Schools have joined with ageing minibus fleets. Our newest school is being built with nine physical chargers for electric vehicles. I expect to learn a lot from this Bodmin build.

Given all the costs, including listed buildings, where does Mill Water stand if the Trust goes under?
Our schools will be protected. The DfE (Department for Education, central government) will step in. The schools could be brokered to another Trust. We have the ability to borrow money from the DfE. We would borrow rather than rely on another school’s budget in such circumstances.

Will you be investing money to expand from 19 to 25 at Mill Water to match some of your other sites?
Yes, we will be looking to expand the age range going forward. The Post-16 offer is currently up to 19 years old and in line with mainstream at three days a week.

For Post-16, are you supportive of the current proposals for an off-site location? If so, how can you add value and where is it in your priorities?
It is at the top of our priorities. The (business) case has been made to Devon County. We will support the school in obtaining the funding needed. When Orchard Manor joined the Trust there was an opportunity to build a new sports hall but Devon County had no confidence in the school to deliver the project. The Trust was able to underwrite the project for four million pounds to get it built.

What progress is being made with the provision of Post-16?
Due diligence has been progressing in the background. We have been talking about pupil numbers and 6th Form provision. The Mill Water Headteacher has been constantly looking at buildings. We are planning to write out to parents in the Autumn term about a building in a seaside town away from the main site.

With the waiting lists for SEN schools, will it help being part of the Trust?
Academies can be 20% over the published number for a school. It is only 10% over for Local Authority controlled schools. If we do relocate and want to increase the Post-16 numbers, we would have to apply to the Regional Schools Director. There are different legal definitions applied to schools. Local Authorities can’t build new but the Trust can access Free School funding to do that. The Trust can respond to demand quicker than the LA can.

Have you thought of putting a second story and doubling the height of Mill Water?
Yes, but planning restrictions apply. I have also asked if it would be possible to dig down to expand downwards. I have been told it is not structurally possible.

I see you have some residential units within the Trust. Given all the bad publicity around residential provision recently, is there a reputational risk to the school of joining the Trust?
If one part of the Trust underperforms reputation will go down. We have tracker processes in place which we use to support schools and fix the problem. We would not leave a Headteacher to cope on their own. We would manage communication. With peer to peer review, we would not get into that situation. Local Authorities are putting a lot of pressure on the two units. These are school units, not children’s homes.

Who are the independent teams who sit above the Headteachers?
Safeguarding Leads; Professional Supervision. This is the infrastructure for the Trust that Mill Water will join and boost.

How do you manage data protection?
For GDPR we use an organisation called SchoolPro TLC, which is the same company that Mill Water also uses. The Trust is moving to a cloud based solution. We have cyber security plans, a DNS (Domain Name System) security system. Our filtering and monitoring system is recognised as outstanding by the DfE.

How does the geography work with you being based in Cornwall?
We will only ever be in Devon and Cornwall. The geography of the south west can seem like we are cut off from the rest of the country by nature of the peninsula. It is important to us that no single school is more than 45 minutes apart.

Where are the other schools in the Trust?
From September 25/26 we are hoping to have schools in Devon in:

    • Torbay
    • Dawlish
    • Ivybridge
    • Tavistock
    • Exeter (Partner school)
    • Mill Water

You talked about integration with Health?
Cornwall uses a system to hold the EHCP plans that we don’t have any access to. This has to change. We have to find ways to integrate services.

Can I ask about pupil progress? How ambitious are you for pupils?
Performance for the Trust is collated through the Headteachers’ termly Performance Report, which is backed up through surveys. Governors, Senior Leadership Team, independent school advisors will input into the SIP (School Improvement Plan). The SIP will be peer reviewed, with moderation reviews at Trust level. We run learning communities for subject leaders e.g. Maths, Phonics, Therapeutic, all minuted and action planned. We use systems such as CPOMs and Arbor to back up individual teachers and demonstrate how well they know their pupils. We want the best for every pupil.

So Governors still input?
We expect professional challenge from current practitioners. We have layers of support within the termly cycle.

How much dialogue do you have with central Government?
It is too early to tell what this change of Government will mean, but SEN and Early Years education policy has been moved to the Department for Education rather than the being under the children and families minister. This is something the sector has long been calling for. I am optimistic and expecting change.

How do you deal with shortages of staff? Will opportunities be affected?
We have robust HR workplace strategies for future recruitment. Roving supply has been explored over many years. We don’t direct staff between schools but are looking at specialist teams e.g. SaLT, Physio, Sensory, which can go into different schools to do a particular job.

If you are adding to the workforce with specialists would this be private or NHS contracts?
We currently have external OT providers, Vagaro and external SaLTs because we couldn’t get capacity quickly enough from the NHS.

Would this affect existing employed specialists?
No. The TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations) process means that all current employees will ‘go as you are’. Changes to a Trust contract of employment will come when there is some change to employment such as a promotion. We are looking to gain from the process, such as having a push on the sensory curriculum using the Trust team to support.

Will the Trust increase capacity?
We will increase and add value.

What about staff having the skills for promoting AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) devices?
This is the good thing about the Trust. Because of the breath of need there will be a specialist within the Trust. At present Mill Water only has access to a SaLT for two days a week but she is a lone voice, within the Trust she will be part of a team.

Will specialists clash?
We are always adapting. At present physios might say a child needs to sit like this but it doesn’t work with their AAC access. We encourage that critical conversation between specialists and/or with teaching staff to put the pupil first.

Would you look to be doing exams in the future?
Mill Waters designation is for SLD (Severe Learning Difficulties) and PMLD (Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties). We would not expect any child who has that capacity to be placed in this school.