PENHURST CLOSING DATE.
The decision to close Penhurst School
was announced on Friday by the charity Action for Children, which runs the
residential school. The school supports children and young people with severe
disabilities will close in May with the loss of 104 jobs. In a statement released
on Friday, Barbara Street, operational director of children’s services at
Action for Children, said: “After considering with the greatest of care a full
range of alternative options and feedback from staff, families and the local
community, we are very reluctantly and sadly announcing the closure of Penhurst
School in the second half of May 2013. “We fully understand that many people
will be saddened by this decision, but despite our best efforts the school has
become unsustainable. There has been an increasing move away from this way of
providing care, towards placing more children nearer their local community. As
a result the number of young people at Penhurst has been steadily falling and
the school ran a substantial deficit last year. Based on current projections,
there will only be five children and young people at the school within two
years.”
Penhurst has been on the same site
for more than 100 years and caters for up to 24 young people with profound
learning disabilities. It employs 104 permanent staff who will be made
redundant and about 30 staff on a casual basis.