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Our local primary school in a very remote rural part of Scotland has been mothballed from the end of term, ie Friday 29th June. It was the very heart of our small community. There has been no timely Local Authority communication or consultation with the local community or indeed our Community Council, only with the parents of the pupils who would have been on the school roll next session. They were invited to a meeting to "Discuss the future of Inverasdale Primary School" and didn't know what was on the cards. They say they felt they were put on the spot to agree to their children's transfer to another school as it solved a staffing problem. As no mothballed primary school has ever, to our knowledge, been re-opened, we feel there has been a de facto closure of our school. Do we have have any rights in law? Having read the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010 Statutory Guidance I think not but am only a lay person. Liz Nicholson
Optional Information: System of Law: Scots Already Tried: Trawling the internet.
Thank you for your question.Can I ask you how you reached the conclusion that you have no rights in law after having read the 2010 Act?It is clear from the basic information you have given me that there is a possibility that the consultation process has not been carried out properly here and that there may be issues which may have to be explored.Before I go into this, however, I would be interested to know why you think there is nothing you can do about it when the proper procedures may not have been followed.
I thought because the school is being "mothballed" rather than officially closed, the community didn't have the same rights.Liz
The way I was looking at it was that "mothballed" would come under sub paragraph 5 of paragraph 5 of Schedule 1 to the Act therefore the consultees would have to be those listed in paragraph 1 of Schedule 2 which you say they haven't done.
My "Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010 - Guidance says under Schedule 1, para 3. "Mothballing, as a temporary rather than permanent discontinuance, does not require consultation in terms of the Act." The Highland Council, Director of Education stated in a letter dated 1 June, 2012 in response to the Community Council's enquiry regarding the rumour they'd heard about the closing/mothballing of the school at the end of term: "The decision to mothball the school came about very quickly following a number of staffing issues in the Gairloch Associated School Group. This enabled teachers to be redeployed in the local area." There is no mention of how long the mothballing period is to last. We feel the decision has been taken far too quickly without appropriate consultation.I am not sure what sub paragraph 5 of paragraph 5 of Schedule 1 of the Act is.
Here it is:"(5) The arrangements are such arrangements in respect of the school or a stage ofeducation in the school as would (if they were implemented) result, or be likely toresult, in the permanent discontinuation of (as the case may be)(a) the school,(b) all the nursery classes in the school,(c) a stage of education in the school (apart from a nursery class), or(d) the provision of Gaelic or English medium education in all the nurseryclasses or a stage of education (apart from a nursery class) in the school"My argument based on what you said earlier is that mothballing here is a front for closing permanently and the arrangements are likely to result in the permanent discontinuation of the school. As such the following provision of Schedule 2 applies in respect of consultation:"In relation to a proposal specified in paragraph 1 of schedule 1, the consulteesare(a) the Parent Council or Combined Parent Council of any affected school,(b) the parents of the pupils at any affected school,(c) the parents of any children expected by the education authority to attendany affected school within two years of the date of publication of theproposal paper,(d) the pupils at any affected school (in so far as the education authorityconsiders them to be of a suitable age and maturity),(e) the staff (teaching and other) at any affected school,(f) any trade union which appears to the education authority to berepresentative of the persons mentioned in sub-paragraph (e),(g) the community council (if any),(h) any body which has been established by a local authority, whether formallyor informally, for the purpose of assisting it in carrying out its functionsunder Part 2 of the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 (asp 1),(i) any other education authority that the education authority considersrelevant,(j) any other users of any affected school that the education authority considersrelevant."In my opinion you should take the steps to have the proposal called in by the Scottish Ministers.The following link may be relevant for the procedures although I appreciate that you've already done some research yourself so I'm sorry if you have seen this before.http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/Schools/Buildings/changestoschoolestate/
Many thanks for your help. It does seem as though this procedure was started without a lot of thought, probably thinking that the Community would roll over and accept it. Unfortunately, a sizeable minority of people locally work for The Highland Council and cannot make comment against that entity.The difficulty for me regarding asking for the proposal to be called in by the Scottish Ministers is that the children concerned have already been inducted into their ''new" school and expect to start there in earnest in August.
That is a practical difficulty. The community has to decide what is in its best interests and in the best interests of the children. From a legal point of view I think there are issues to be raised.
Experience: 27 years as a practising solicitor.