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Closure of Skerton Community High School (Lancaster)

Volume 577: debated on Thursday 20 March 2014

The Petition of the community surrounding Skerton Community High School,

Declares that the Petitioners believe that Lancashire County Council have not listened to their concerns for the schools closure in the initial round of consultation and that the County Council should not have perused the closure of the school any further.

The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to take steps to support the School in its bid to remain open.

And the Petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by David Morris, Official Report, 26 February 2014; Vol. 576, c. 377.]

[P001320]

Observations from the Secretary of State for Education:

The Government are committed to transforming the school system to ensure that not only are there a sufficient supply of school places but that these places are of the highest quality.

All decisions related to school closures are taken locally following a well-established five-stage statutory process to allow those directly affected by the proposals to feed in their comments. The process includes an early consultation period to allow those affected by the closure proposals to submit views and comments. The proposals must then be published in a number of places and a formal representation period follows. This allows a further opportunity for views and comments to be submitted.

The decision makers’ guidance document issued by the Department gives a full and comprehensive explanation of all of the issues and considerations which the decision maker must take into account when considering statutory proposals. They must be fully satisfied that the appropriate statutory process has been carried out, that all views submitted have been considered and all issues surrounding the closure, especially alternative and suitable provision for displaced pupils, have been explored and planned.

Lancashire County Council is proposing the closure of Skerton Community High School due to concerns over educational standards, low pupil numbers and a lack of financial viability. The formal representation period ran from 16 January 2014 to 26 February 2014 and the Council is expecting to make a decision on the proposals in April 2014.

As these decisions must be made locally, following the statutory process the Government are unable to influence the outcome. The Secretary of State’s intervention powers in matters such as these are extremely limited. He may only intervene where the local authority has acted in breach of its statutory duties, or in a way that is so unreasonable that no other authority would have acted in such a way. We have no grounds to believe that the Secretary of State can intervene in this case.