Legal battle over school closure

A statutory six week consultation is required before schools can be closed

A teaching union is taking legal action against a council for allegedly failing to carry out a proper consultation over the planned closure of a school.

Bolton Council wants to close Hayward Community Secondary School on August 31 and re-open it the next day as a state funded, but privately run academy.

The National Union of Teachers says it has not met its statutory requirements and is seeking judicial review.

Bolton Council says it is in the process of carrying out a consultation.

The rule includes a list of consultees. Bolton failed to consult all those listed Christine Blower NUT acting general secretary

But the NUT's North West regional secretary Avis Gilmore said the council only began a formal consultation process once union officials warned it they were planning to seek judicial review in the High Court.

The process began with the publication of a notice of closure in the local press, she added.

Because of the timescale, the NUT is also asking the court to order a stay on the planned closure until it makes a decision on whether the review is to be granted.

NUT acting general secretary Christine Blower said: "Consultation on proposals of this kind is legally controlled by and under the Education and Inspections Act 2006.

"The rule includes a list of consultees. Bolton failed to consult all those listed. In particular, they did not include unions in a circulation on 20 May.

"The rules say that adequate time must be given for consultee responses. Six weeks is the recommended adequate time. Bolton gave 12 days."

Bolton Council says notice of the plans were given to teachers and parents in this letter of 20 May, but that the statutory six-week period of representation began several weeks later on June 11. It is due to end on 23 July.

A spokeswoman also said the council's legal team was looking at the claims raised by the application for judicial review and was preparing a defence.

'Improving school'

She added that an extensive programme of informal and formal consultation involving the school governors and other "stakeholders", including the staff and trade unions, had been going on for some time.

She said: "At no time was the proposal to close Hayward school presented as a fait accompli. The only body that can determine the school closure proposal is the Council Executive, which meets on July 25 2008."

A second consultation exercise was currently underway on the proposal to re-open Hayward as an academy from 1 September, she said.

"The consultation exercise is on behalf of academy co-sponsors Essa and Bolton Council and has taken the form of a series of meetings at the school with pupils, staff, governors, parents, union representatives and the wider community."

But Ms Gilmore said: "Staff have been genuinely saying we don't know whether this school should be closed and re-opened as an academy or not because nobody has talked to us about it.

"This is not just people saying they don't want an academy."

She added that Hayward Community Secondary School was an improving school and that many staff had worked there for a long time.

NUT members at the school also went on strike on Tuesday over the issue and are planning to fight an employment tribunal over a possible breach of the rules governing transfer of public sector employees to the private sector.