Central Hub Brighton (formerly SEMH Hub)

Overview

A wide-ranging review of special provision in the City was held in 2014, followed by public consultations on a set of proposals for change and improvement. This culminated in a decision on 18 September 2017 by the Children, Young People and Skills Committee to consolidate the City’s six special schools and two PRUs into three specialist hubs from 1 September 2018. Plans were for these Hubs to offer a wide range of integrated education, health and care/extended day and holiday services to families.

Specifically the Committee approved the merger of the existing Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) and the Connected Hub, and the arrangements to bring the merged PRU together with Homewood College to form the integrated hub for social, emotional and mental health. This was to be known as the SEMH central hub pending decision on re-naming. Agreement was also given to expand and extend the age range of Homewood College from 11-16 to 5-19 on the understanding that the extended age range was there to ‘future proof’ provision and did not necessarily imply there would be groupings across the full age range.

As part of the re-organisation project, there has always been a commitment to consolidate any accommodation and then substantially upgrade, extend and develop the sites that remain. It was acknowledged within the committee paper that some of the sites used by the proposed SEMH central hub were no longer ‘fit for purpose’ and that these issues needed to be addressed by making the most creative use of available accommodation and the additional capital funding available. Therefore, careful consideration has been given as to how the accommodation for the SEMH hub could be reconfigured so as to ensure that the team have the right learning environment to meet the needs of their pupils.

The Executive Director of Families, Children & Learning, the Executive Head Teacher of the Central Hub, the Chair of Governors of Homewood College and the Chair of the Management Committee of The Connected Hub and Brighton & Hove Pupil Referral Unit  have been working closely together on developing the proposals presented in this paper which are listed below:

• Homewood College moves from the current site in Queensdown Road to the Cedar Centre site on Lynchet Close once it has been vacated by the special school.
• The KS3 PRU located on Dyke Road moves to the current KS1, 2 and 4 site on Lynchet Close.
• The KS1 and 2 PRU move from their current site in Lynchet Close to spare accommodation located in a local primary school, thereby providing adequate space for KS3 to move onto the Lynchet Close site.