Govt ‘dragging its heels’ over new special school

FRUSTRATION: City council leader Mike Ross

EXCLUSIVE

By Simon Bristow, Co-Editor

The leader of Hull City Council has spoken of his frustration at Government delays in helping to fund a new special school, despite it been agreed a new one was needed five years ago.

Although the exact cost of the new school has not been disclosed, the council hopes to build a multimillion-pound 125-place special school called Willowfield in the north of the city to cater for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

It is a service area where demand and costs have “gone through the roof” in recent years.

After an apparent impasse that saw little progress with the previous Conservative government, city council leader Mike Ross has tried to rekindle the project under the new Labour administration, highlighting the needs in a letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner just days after they took office last July.

Six months on the council is still waiting on a decision.

Councillor Ross, the Liberal Democrat leader of the council, told The Hull Story: “Frustration is the polite term. It just needs to be done. There’s all these children not getting the provision they need, which is not just bad for them but from a council point of view creates additional cost by having them in a mainstream setting.

“I don’t understand why they are dragging their feet in announcing this decision.”

The council said in a statement: “As a council, we are committed to ensuring pupils with SEND in Hull are educated in the most appropriate settings to meet their needs.

“The council has been in a process of negotiations with the Government to agree funding towards the construction of a new school in the city to meet the needs of those children that cannot be met in mainstream settings.

“The council remains committed to delivering the agreed new 125-place Special Free School, but has become increasingly frustrated at the delays in making a commitment to the project by the Department for Education.

“This is causing unhelpful delays in getting the new school in place for those children in the city that need this provision as it is reliant upon funding coming from the Government. The council continues to wait for a positive outcome around funding from the Government to allow the new school to be built and are calling on them to make a decision soon.”

The letter, dated July 8, 2024, outlined wider financial challenges facing the authority. On children’s services it said: “Innovations in demand management and service redesign are constantly being implemented by our children’s services teams, and they continue to improve both quality and financial outcomes, but our costs continue to escalate, reflecting ever-growing levels of service demand and an increasing complexity of need, particularly for children with special educational needs.

“Over the last five years, Hull has seen an average increase of 16 per cent in the number of requests for education, health and care plans (EHCPs) creating significant additional in-year cost pressures and leading to a forecast £1m budget overspend this year alone and significant year on year increases beyond 2024/25 which are unsustainable.

“The current five-year delay, by the outgoing government, in the building of a special school where there is agreement it is required, further exacerbates local sufficiency challenges.”

The Department for Education was approached for comment.