Red Brae School
The final item of business is a members' business debate on motion S2M-140, in the name of Phil Gallie, on Red Brae School.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament commends the experienced staff at Red Brae School, Maybole, who provide an alternative education path for pupils excluded from mainstream education for disruptive and undisciplined behaviour; acknowledges the benefits of this education which the pupils themselves appreciate, and believes that the Scottish Executive must ensure that such facilities are available across the country thereby ensuring that those children whose behaviour patterns are not suited to mainstream education are catered for in a way that steers them into becoming useful and respected members of society.
I thank the Presiding Officer for selecting the motion for debate and all those members who supported it.
Red Brae School is a small, independent school that has provided an unsurpassed service to education authorities in Ayrshire for the past 20 years. It specialises in providing educational and behavioural support for 10 to 16-year-old boys who fall into a classification over which both the Executive and the Parliament have recently expressed much concern. Indeed, such concern was expressed as recently as this afternoon's debate.
The boys provide a classic example of those who from an early age are excluded from mainstream society, albeit as a consequence of their own actions. Despite the Executive's policy of restricting exclusions from mainstream education, most of the boys at Red Brae have been barred by their schools and respective education authorities. Some will have demonstrated excessive levels of disruptive or aggressive violent behaviour; some will be extreme truants; and others will have been diagnosed as victims of Asperger's syndrome, autism or similar disorders. Indeed, there will be boys who, even at their young age, are well known to the police and children's panels.
Some members might have disagreed with my past proposals for dealing with young people's misbehaviour in communities. However, all members would surely agree that alternative measures must always be available to guide such children on to a path that will allow them to have a useful and fulfilling life. Red Brae School has more than played its part towards that end.
The school caters for up to 32 pupils, although the actual number of pupils has fallen well short of that figure. In fact, by the beginning of this month, the number of pupils on the register had fallen to 21. It is ironic that the school is being sidelined at a time when truancy and disruption by children in our communities are increasing.
The school has a staff of eight teachers, several of whom have been in post for 15 to 20 years. All of them are special-needs qualified; however, the most valuable aspect of all must be the combined experience that is present in the school. The total staff complement is 27, the balance of which is made up of care workers, ancillary staff and a couple of administrators, and they are all trained to deal with the special needs of the children in their care.
The success of Red Brae, as evidenced by former pupils, is widely acknowledged. Indeed, one of those pupils, Callum Stewart, is in the chamber today. He has now returned to mainstream schooling. While he was a pupil at Red Brae, he attained bronze and silver awards under the Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network. That achievement is surely a credit both to Callum and to the school.
I am sad to say that despite such achievements, and after a series of negotiations with local authorities, it appears that the authorities consider that there is no need to continue the services that Red Brae School offers. I suspect that that judgment was based on a search for cost savings, because high staff to pupil ratios do not come cheap. Irrespective of that, it is essential that we do not abandon such youngsters. It is a fact that their exclusion from mainstream education brings benefits to their peers and, to a degree, to teaching staff, as we heard at the recent Educational Institute of Scotland conference. It would be ironic if, on a day when the Executive offered £1 million for short-term facilities for youngsters to keep them out of trouble this summer, we lost sight of those youngsters' long-term interests.
The building that houses the school is council-owned. The founder of the school is a former teacher who recognised the need for such a service, but he suffers ill health and has no desire to fight an uphill battle to keep the school running. Committed staff have investigated the means of creating a charitable trust to keep the school going, but have been discouraged by the local authority.
Red Brae is scheduled to close this week. Of their own volition, pupils wrote to the minister, pleading a strong case as they saw it for keeping going the school that they have identified with and from which they have gained much benefit. They did so for themselves, as well as for others in the future. I, too, have drawn ministers' attention to the matter and, belatedly, have registered my concerns with the local authority—until last week, discussions were still going on between the school and the local council.
I freely acknowledge that I take a relatively hard line on issues of crime and punishment, but I balance that by seeking supporting measures that are aimed are rehab and redirection. Red Brae offers a much-needed facility with a recognised success rate in bringing young people back into society from a position of total exclusion. I pay tribute to the staff and pupils whom I have met in recent times and welcome some of them to the chamber this evening. In doing so, I say to them that my wish is that they will hear some words of encouragement and hope from the minister when he replies to the debate.
Given the Executive's aspiration to curb indiscipline and disruption by youngsters such as those who attend Red Brae, it is essential that it does not allow such a facility to be lost. I ask the minister to intervene to ensure the school's continuation.
First, I congratulate Phil Gallie on securing this evening's debate on Red Brae School. My remarks will echo the sentiments that he expressed.
It is a matter of great regret that the institution that we are praising for the excellent work that it has done in Ayrshire over the past 20 years or so is likely to be shutting its doors for the last time at the end of term on Friday. From my perspective, what is worse is the fact that the team of 20-odd staff at the school, who have amassed so many years of invaluable experience between them, can be broken up and scattered to the four winds. Undoubtedly, that represents a great loss to the education service in Ayrshire.
Ironically, we are losing the facility at a time when public policy is focusing ever more closely on problems such as rising violence and disruption in classrooms and levels of youth crime in society in general. It remains to be seen whether the new policy driven initiatives within councils will prove to be as effective as Red Brae has been in turning round the lives of many of the boys who passed through its doors down through the years.
My understanding is that the day care service that the school provides is no longer deemed to be best value compared with, say, placing secondary 3 and secondary 4 pupils in Rathbone Community Industry. It is undoubtedly true that the additional resources that have been made available to councils by the Executive have encouraged new programme delivery using local education department facilities and staff. However, it would not surprise me in the slightest if, in the fullness of time, the policy circle turns again in favour of the establishment of schools such as Red Brae. I will be interested in what the minister has to say about appropriate programme delivery within that evolving policy context.
In the meantime, I want local authorities in Ayrshire to put much more effort into ensuring that Red Brae's dedicated staff are absorbed into the local education service and their expertise properly utilised to the benefit of the whole community. I understand that South Ayrshire Council is taking a lead in that respect, as it should do, and I trust that acceptable outcomes will be achieved. Of course, the survival of Red Brae in some shape or form would still be top of my list.
Last night, I spoke to Mike McCabe, who is South Ayrshire Council's director of education. He said that the council is still in discussions about potentially keeping Red Brae open, even under the aegis of the council, in a slimmed-down form. The council has also had discussions with Quarriers, for example, so there is still some hope. Like Phil Gallie, I would like Red Brae to continue to serve the pupils—
Does the member agree that the teamwork that revolves around the staff, the pupils' recognition of that teamwork and the support that the staff receive from the pupils are major aspects of Red Brae?
I agree with Phil Gallie. I have spoken to Leah Galbraith, staff at the school and some youngsters who are here tonight. What can be achieved in seemingly difficult situations is heart warming. The lives of many people have been turned around. Of course, there are failures, but without institutions such as Red Brae, the boys concerned would be leading very different lives.
In conclusion, I hope that the debate does not mark the end of Red Brae School. There is a glimmer of hope and I hope that the minister will give us additional hope.
I find myself in a unique position again: I will still be teaching until Friday and am in a secondary school in which I run a pupil support department. Part of my role is to promote social inclusion and keep young people in the setting that is best for them—in most cases, a mainstream setting.
However, many young people need extra support. Sometimes we can give them such support in a mainstream school, but a small minority need alternative placements. Ardrossan Academy, which is my school, has in the past sent young people to Red Brae School, so I know about its good work. I am delighted that Phil Gallie has lodged the motion and that I can support it.
Red Brae School does a tremendous amount of good work with young people. It has an excellent track record, staff and facilities, as members have rightly said. It is unfortunate that local authorities such as North Ayrshire Council and South Ayrshire Council are reducing the number of referrals to Red Brae. They are doing so not because they have fewer young people in need of alternative placements, but to save money and to put young people into their own establishment. That is happening in North Ayrshire, where an establishment has been set up so that there is an alternative placement for the young people who are referred through joint support teams in secondary schools.
Over the past year or so, I have been enormously distressed that joint support teams of professional people—including head teachers, heads of departments, educational psychologists, social workers, parents and pupils—can recommend a referral for a young person to a different setting, such as Red Brae, Ballikinrain Residential School or somewhere else, yet the local authority social inclusion placement group can consider that referral and say, "No, you are going to our own unit in North Ayrshire".
The only reason for such decisions has to be lack of funding. It is cheaper to send the young people to a unit within the local authority for all sorts of reasons—fees and so on—but that is not always in the best interests of the young person. One size does not fit all. The young person who is dealing with drugs should be put into a placement where they are secure and do not influence others. However, the young person who has behavioural and emotional difficulties should be put into a place such as Red Brae, where they can get the correct treatment and support and where there is also support for parents.
It is vital that we fight hard to keep Red Brae open, but a bigger debate has been opened up about the recommendations that are made in schools and about what is going on at the higher level of the social inclusion placement group in the local authority. There are lots of problems with young people being maintained in schools, despite the fact that they should not be there, or being put into the wrong placements. We are talking about a small group, so we should be able to deal with the matter effectively and put those young people into the right placements. However, we are not doing so.
I support Phil Gallie's motion. I hope that we can do something about the situation and I will work as hard as I can with him to achieve that.
Rosemary Byrne speaks from a position of considerable experience as a teacher. We welcome her contribution this evening and look forward to many more.
Phil Gallie summed up the essence of the matter in one sentence:
"Red Brae offers a much-needed facility with a recognised success rate in bringing young people back into society from a position of total exclusion."
I understand that some of the young people concerned—perhaps a considerable number—come from areas of urban deprivation, although not all of them do. They are children who lived in fragile circumstances and therefore it seems that they should be given strong support. At the very least, the council should be able to offer them better facilities or facilities that are every bit as good as those that they have at present. If the council cannot do that, the argument for the minister to intervene is strong. I support my friend, Phil Gallie, who lodged the motion.
I congratulate Phil Gallie on securing the debate and initiating an interesting discussion.
Promoting positive behaviour in our classrooms and supporting teachers and pupils are key priorities for the Executive. I will say more about those matters shortly, but first I will say a few words about Red Brae.
Members will appreciate that I am not personally acquainted with the work of Red Brae, but it is clear that the staff have made a big impression on the pupils who signed the petition in support of the school, which came to the Scottish Executive Education Department. I add my congratulations to those of Phil Gallie to Callum Stewart, whom Phil mentioned specifically and who has achieved a number of significant goals. I am pleased to hear that. I commend the hard work that staff in schools such as Red Brae and other special schools put into supporting the education of pupils who, for whatever reasons, are unable to attend a mainstream school.
We understood that the decision to close Red Brae had been taken by the school's independent managers. That was a decision for them to take and I know that it will have been a hard choice for them to make. However, I am aware that the education authorities that use the school have plans in place to ensure continuity in the education of pupils who currently attend the school.
The future use of the building is a matter for South Ayrshire Council, which owns the school building and the grounds. I understand that the council has set up a feasibility group to consider options for continuing to use the building as a school, possibly independently run.
As Adam Ingram said—I received the information this morning, he received it last night—discussions about the future of the school are on-going. Later this week or next week, we might find that the school will stay open, although in a slightly different form. It would be wrong for the Executive to intrude in those discussions, which involve a number of parties, including South Ayrshire Council. The Official Report of tonight's debate will be available to South Ayrshire Council, which could pick up the various points that members have made.
The school may or may not close, but the main point is that the children who are at the school will not disappear. The local authority will have to look after them; it is not satisfactory for it to say, "The school is switched off, we'll possibly do something about those children in the future." We must come up with something more substantial than that so that we—or someone else—might do something. Phil Gallie pointed the way on that.
I thank the member for his comments. Doubtless, South Ayrshire Council and the independent managers will take his points on board. It is for the council to provide the facilities and to deal with the education of young people. I repeat that when there was discussion about the closure the understanding was that the local education authority would plan to ensure continuity in the education of the pupils who attend the school. We must await the developments from the on-going discussions with the council.
Does the minister accept that the suggestion made to the independent management was that the flow of pupils would not continue into the school and that, on that basis, it was understandable that the independent management was prepared to stand back, particularly given the terms to which I referred earlier? If South Ayrshire Council comes up with an alternative, that would be tremendous, but, as I pointed out to Adam Ingram, the tremendous team at Red Brae will be broken up in the immediate future if we do not do something quickly. If the minister got involved with the council and counselled it a little, I would be delighted.
I recognise the point about breaking up a team of specialists. Perhaps one option that was not given the fullest consideration was the reconfiguration of Red Brae, given that there might be a smaller number of pupils. I was not party to the advice that the council gave to the independent managers about future supply, so I do not know about that. Phil Gallie's point about the team of people who work at the school is important and, doubtless, the council will want to take that matter into account in its future provision.
I will make some general points, because it is important to set the debate in a wider context. The Executive is committed to equality, inclusion and diversity in school provision throughout Scotland—that is one of our national education priorities. It is essential that children receive a quality education in the school setting that best meets their needs. "A Partnership for a Better Scotland" sets out the Executive's belief that a range of mainstream and specialist provision, including special schools, is required to meet the needs of all children. That includes the needs of pupils for whom mainstream education is not appropriate or who have been excluded from mainstream provision.
The minister talks about the correct setting, but the point that I made earlier, to which I would like a response if he can give me one, was that, at the moment, recommendations to send young people to alternative settings are not listened to. Young people are either left in mainstream schools or put into unsatisfactory units. A small number of young people are not being placed in the correct setting, which has resulted in the closure of Red Brae because the local authorities that normally used it do so no longer.
I should have referred to the member's remarks earlier because her professional experience in the area is important. If she has examples, it would be acceptable and appropriate for her to make them available to the relevant local authority for consideration. If the examples are from her constituency, she has a right to do that. That might contribute to supplying a greater number of individuals not only to Red Brae, but to other parts of the system.
Exclusion from school continues to be a last-resort sanction for behaviour that seriously disrupts the school environment. A decision to exclude must take into account not only the needs and right of the majority of pupils to learn, but the effectiveness of the sanction in addressing a pupil's behaviour.
Exclusion does not remove an education authority's responsibility to ensure that all children and young people continue to receive an education. Therefore, it is essential that authorities have appropriate strategies in place so that they can re-establish excluded pupils' education and help them to develop a positive attitude to learning as soon as possible. Indeed, Mr Gallie's earlier example was an appropriate one to raise in the debate.
It is obvious that the Executive has taken steps to change its exclusion policy, because its previous target of reducing exclusions by a third has been removed. Consequently, there might be more exclusions because head teachers have more powers to exclude. Does that not suggest a strategic role for the Government in looking at schools such as Red Brae, which deal with excluded pupils? We acknowledge that it is important to let local authorities decide on local facilities, but a strategic decision from the Executive will have a knock-on effect that could mean that places such as Red Brae receive a further supply of pupils.
I understand the member's point, which is an important one. The Executive will continue to monitor the impact of its policy. I cannot predict whether the number of exclusions will rise, but I do not think that it will do so. Our clear policy objective is to include as many pupils in mainstream education as possible, but we never intervene in a head teacher's decision to exclude. Head teachers are the appropriate professionals to make such decisions. If there has been an emphasis that has suggested anything to the contrary, it is important for the Executive to correct that.
It is important to have a range of approaches. Independent special schools such as Red Brae offer local authorities an important option for dealing with disaffected young people. The Executive has made that clear. However, we should not ignore the broad range of approaches that local authorities are developing in the light of the recommendations of the Executive's discipline task group.
Where alternative education is required, it is important that it is tailored to the needs of the individual child. For example, it might not be enough to develop an alternative curriculum within a school as an option for disaffected pupils. Support from an in-school base, which can enable pupils' behaviour to be addressed without the need for exclusion, might also be required. Peter Peacock and I recently visited a good example of such a base in Glasgow. A multiplicity of approaches can be developed.
Some authorities have developed support bases that provide, within the authority, out-of-school provision for pupils from a cluster of schools. That is a perfectly valid approach. An important feature of such bases is the link between the staff who work in the bases and the staff in schools who will continue to support the pupils in their school when they return. The objective must be to get the pupils back into schools.
There is an increasing emphasis across authorities on developing a multi-agency approach to address the needs of pupils with severe behavioural difficulties. Such an approach can take account of all a pupil's educational, personal and social needs and help to inform decisions on appropriate placements for pupils whose needs cannot be addressed within mainstream education.
I will try to be brief, Presiding Officer, because I think that I am well beyond my time.
The Executive is providing significant support for education authorities. We are investing £21 million a year for the implementation of the recommendations of the discipline task group and in alternatives to exclusion. We will continue to support schools through funding the specialist training of teachers in behaviour support. We will disseminate good practice through a national website and draw on professionals with experience of the chalk face, parents, pupils and others to develop our promotion of positive discipline.
I look forward to seeing what happens with Red Brae and I am grateful to Phil Gallie for raising the issue.
Meeting closed at 17:39.