Education / Refreshed mothballing principles aim to improve clarity and communication
COUNCILLORS have begun discussing refreshed school mothballing procedures which officers say will provide greater clarity and communication.
It comes after a ‘lessons learned’ report was compiled by Shetland Islands Council following previous consideration of mothballing of the Skeld and Cullivoe primary schools.
That process resulted in Skeld being mothballed, but Cullivoe was kept open due to its projected school roll.
In both instances there was concern shown from members of the community around some aspects of the process.
At a meeting of the SIC’s education and families committee on Monday, children’s services director Helen Budge said the new procedures offer a “greater depth of clarity” than the ‘toolkit’ currently in place.
The new principles, which can be viewed here, still need the approval of the policy and resources committee and the full council.
Some key proposed changes include open schools on the ‘small population’ islands – Fair Isle, Foula, Papa Stour, Skerries and Fetlar – only being considered for mothballing when the roll falls, or is due to fall, to zero.
Elsewhere in Shetland consideration would begin if the roll falls below 20 per cent, as per current guidance.
Reopening a mothballed school on the islands of small populations would be considered when families move to the island, and for other schools this would be when the roll in the catchment area reaches 20 per cent of capacity.
The director of children’s services would have delegated authority to mothball a school “where the minority of parents are opposed, or majority of parents are not opposed, to the proposal, or where the school roll has fallen to zero”.
The director would also have delegated authority to reopen a mothballed school when conditions are met, and the costs can be financed from existing resources.
Otherwise it would be conditional on a report being presented to councillors on the education and families committee.
Another principle is that should the majority of parents with pupils in attendance at the school remain opposed to mothballing “once all the relevant information and parental views have been gathered, the school should remain open and the director of children’s services will report back to the education and families committee” to decide the next steps.
Budge said some of the other points from the lessons learned exercise was that timescales should be clearly set out and followed, and that mothballing procedures need to be shared more widely.
The item on the proposed new procedures at Monday’s meeting lasted an hour and a half, with a number of amendments to wording suggested.
However a couple of amendments from Shetland West councillor Liz Peterson were voted down amid concern from other members that they would lessen the difference between the mothballing and statutory closure processes.
One of her suggestions, which did not get the support from the committee, was that when a school roll reached 30 per cent officers should investigate why this decline is happening and what mitigations could be introduced to stop it.
Peterson had also asked for community councils, along with the wider community, to be consulted with before any decision is taken on mothballing, but this lost out in a vote. Currently it is the school community that is consulted with.
Speaking generally about the proposed procedures, committee chairman Davie Sandison said he felt they were “far more robust” than before and stand up to scrutiny.
During debate vice-chair Catherine Hughson, who said she had researched mothballing policies at other local authorities, also noted how the SIC is going “above and beyond” in terms of detail.
The procedures are due to go in front of the policy and resources committee on 16 September before heading to the full council for final decision on 25 September.
Shetland currently has four mothballed schools – Skeld, Skerries, Papa Stour and Fetlar.
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