The Chief Executive is, above all other responsibilities, responsible for the strategic leadership of the charity.

The proposal to move towards Free School status is fundamentally a strategic one. That is to say, the decision to investigate the benefits is taken in the long-term interests of the charity as a whole, of the school in particular and to implement the charity’s agreed Strategic Plan.

Clarifying terminological confusion Free Schools will be registered by the DfE as Academies under the Academies Act 2010. Hitherto, so-called “Free Schools”, following Swedish terminology, have been distinguished from “Academies”, only in that the term “Free Schools” defines and describes that group of proposals invited by DfE from parents, charities and others to create new schools.

Strategic Options The strategic importance of this is that there are only two options open to the charity as regards the future registration of Paces School: 1. To stay as we are; that is, to continue as a Non-Maintained Special School 2. To apply via the “Free School” route to become an Academy.

Political implications Undoubtedly, the decision as to the future status of Paces School has serious political implications. However, and despite our personal political persuasions, the Chief Executive, the Board of Trustees and the Board of Governors sub-committee, individually and collectively must take strategic decisions in the interests only of those the charity is seeking to benefit and, as far as is possible, to set aside party political considerations.

Consultation In developing the strategic intent to apply for Free School status, detailed discussions have been held with a range of individuals and bodies, both locally and nationally. The progress of these discussions has been reported regularly to the Board of Trustees.

Furthermore, in advance of the general election in May 2010, careful attention has been paid over the past two years to the developments, by each of the main political parties, of education policy especially that relating to special educational needs and special schools. As Chief Executive, I, not unusually or exceptionally, formed the view that the then New Labour Government was unlikely to form the Government after the 2010 election. The consequence of this judgement was that it was necessary to pay particular attention to the direction of Conservative Party policy, notably the statements on Free Schools from then Shadow Education Secretary Michael Gove and on special educational needs in the reports from the Conservative Party Commission on SEN chaired by Sir Robert Balchin.

A most important recommendation is the reform of the present “statementing” process whereby the local authority is concomitantly: assessor, funder & provider.

Taken together, these changes separate these functions and create a national policy environment in which applying to become an Academy is a sensible long-term strategic step for Paces.

Paces’ Strategic Plan sets our Vision: “A world in which all individuals have access to the education and training that meets both their needs and the aspirations of their parents and in which they are able to go on to live inclusively and independently as adults.”

Paces’ foundation is parent-led. We have developed our school and other services in an environment at best indifferent, at worst hostile on several levels, from our conductive education philosophy to our independent status.

The invitation by the current coalition Government to parent-groups and others to bring forward proposals for ‘free schools’ is the first time that public policy has positively encouraged foundations such as ourselves. One might say, we were a free school before free schools were thought of.

Paces Strategic Plan sets out our corporate Aim: “To become a world-class institution for the practice of, training in and research into conductive education serving children and adults with cerebral palsy and their families. The radical corporate aim of this strategic plan is, within 5 years, to transform Paces from a local charity into an authoritative national conductive education charity”.

The achievement of non-maintained special school status is one which all who contributed to it can be justly proud. My guess is that those who worked daily for this achievement actually under-estimate what has been achieved.

From 1992 in Sheffield, an informal grouping of parents set out to bring conductive education into the mainstream of education for children with cerebral palsy. We began with summer schools. In 2009, we secured non-maintained special school status. For the first time ever, a conductive education school received part of its funding from the State, the NMSS school and the local authority enjoined to work “in partnership”: a toe-hold in the mainstream? Maybe, indeed. Yet it is a very considerable step in achieving our original intent and towards fulfilling our Aim.

Free School status, having full control of our curriculum, our admissions, our staffing, our finances, is the next logical step.

Paces Strategic Plan sets five corporate Objectives to be achieved within 5 years, one of which is to have: “Evolved a business model capable of delivering our Aim”.

As long ago as 2002 and, of course, under a then New Labour government, the Report of the Special Schools Working Group led by Baroness Ashton, then an Education Minister, acknowledged the financial difficulties faced by non-maintained and approved independent special schools, difficulties with which we are very familiar: “The Working Group believes that there is a need to look again at the funding arrangements for NMSS and approved independent schools with a view to introducing an alternative system which will minimise the level of financial vulnerability for these schools to help maintain quality in the sector.”

Paces’ current business model, though an improvement now that Paces School is a non-maintained special school with some income direct from Government, dependent as it is on fighting for the placement of almost every child, is not a business model capable of delivering our Aim. Put simply, the Free School option makes that more likely.

“Briefly outline your reasons for wanting to set up a Free School.” Our Proposal to DfE answered that question on the form as follows:

We believe Free School status will:

 increase choice to parents of children with cerebral palsy: given that all four South Yorkshire local authorities have now closed all their special schools catering specifically for children with physical disabilities and placed pupils in local mainstream schools, integrated units on mainstream sites or such multi-disability special schools as remain;

 enhance sustainability of Paces School: the current arrangement whereby the local authority is responsible for assessments of special educational need, placement decisions, provision of school places and funding, is a situation making for financial instability of NMSS and other independent providers of special education to LAs, encouraging ‘short-termism’ in planning rather than long-term sustainable development;

 encourage curricular innovation: Paces School has already successfully and uniquely integrated across the school age range the National Curriculum with Conductive Education (Ofsted 2003 & 2008). However, tight linkage with the National Curriculum is also a constraint on innovation in other curricular areas which we are keen to explore - a curriculum specifically focused upon leading pupils with cerebral palsy into a more independent life beyond school;

 free us to manage our salary scales in line with our other charitable activities. The range of different roles generated by having trained conductors, conductor assistants and part-time volunteers has been constrained by ill-fitting job descriptions and salary expectations imported from dissimilar establishments;

 enhance the reputation of Paces School and of the charity, in line with our Strategic Plan, across all sectors;

 lead to better partnership working, not just with local authorities and with local ‘families of schools’ but with other public agencies such as PCTs and with the private sector;

 and become an exemplar for other parents of children with special education needs who might wish to follow the parent-led Free School route.