Council to open temporary school for Send pupils

Central Bedfordshire Council said it hoped the pupils would be in classrooms in Dunstable by December

A council has said it hopes to open a temporary school for children with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs by December.

Independently run Central Bedfordshire has agreed to provide a permanent specialist facility in Pulloxhill for up to 50 pupils but said they would first be offered places at a site in Dunstable first as the other building needs renovation.

Executive member Steve Owen said the decision "brings forward the date we can educate real children in Pulloxhill School".

But opposition councillor Victoria Harvey claimed delays to the authority's free school plans had already led to the loss of 130 Send places in the county.

The council hopes an unused block of the Chiltern School in Dunstable will be ready by December

Owen, executive member for children, families and community safety, said that "all being well" an unused block of the Chiltern School in Dunstable would be ready by December after a "modest refurbishment" costing between £800,000 and £1m.

He told the BBC the refurbishment would allow the site to be used at a later date for other children with different special needs.

Renovating the Pulloxhill Lower school site is expected to cost around £2.6m, but Owen hoped pupils would be able to move there "sometime in 2026, if we get our skates on".

He said: "Send children need specialist accommodation, breakout spaces, one-to-one spaces, quiet spaces" so there was "a fair amount of alteration to be done".

The new provision will be delivered as a satellite of Larwood School, operated by the Brighter Futures Educational Trust in Stevenage.

Owen confirmed the authority "talked to other potential partners" but said "none were as enthusiastic as Larwood School were".

He said they had "the additional attraction of already operating specialist SEMH places" including children from Bedfordshire.

The council hoped this would save them between £1.24m and £2.6m annually compared to the cost of independent placements for youngsters.

The approach is also designed to reduce transport costs and improve outcomes for children and families.

Independent councillor Victoria Harvey welcomed the news but claimed delays had cost 130 Send places in Central Bedfordshire

Independent councillor Harvey, who is not aligned with any independent groups on the authority, said it was "great seizing this opportunity" but claimed "130 places had already been lost due to the delays".

She told the BBC that in March, the Oak Bank School Trust in Bedfordshire had withdrawn from the pre-opening phase of Central Bedfordshire Council's Free School process because of "continued uncertainties over site availability, project timelines, and the absence of any meaningful communication".

A spokesperson for Central Bedfordshire said the delays were due to a change in national government which had paused the authority's plans for a free school.

They added that the Department for Education's regional director visited the Children's Services Overview and Scrutiny meeting in June and told the committee that delays over the free school was nothing to do with the council.