Hope for special school after extra £1.5m of funding

Nearly £1.5m of extra council funding will be provided to prevent a new special needs school from closing after less than a year.

Hill View School in Somerset was funded by the Department for Education (DfE), but "significant operational difficulties", including water ingress and faulty gates, meant it was not able to welcome more students in February.

Councillors have criticised the DfE for not putting in enough money, with one saying it was "outrageous" for the council to have to "carry the can".

The DfE has been contacted for comment.

The government funded the building of Hill View Special School, near Yeovil, after accepting a bid by Somerset County Council to create more SEND spaces, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reports.

The free school opened in September 2024 for 60 children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and is run by the Oak Partnership Trust.

But within the first month, it reported "significant operational difficulties", including substantial problems with the fabric of the building.

These included water ingress (forcing several classrooms to close), faulty gates on the car park (presenting a safeguarding issue), door fastenings which easily broke off, incorrectly installed "non-climb fences" and staff shortages.

The school put short-term emergency measures in place, but the disruption had caused its pupils to "become significantly dysregulated", damaging their education and wider quality of life, according to a report to the council's executive.

Following a series of visits, the DfE agreed to provide £684,000, allowing off-limits classrooms to be gradually reopened.

But the trust is still forecasting a deficit of £868,000 for the end of this academic year – and without a significant increase in pupil numbers and associated funding, it would have to "surrender" the school back to the DfE to avoid bankruptcy, it said.

At a meeting on Wednesday, Somerset Council's executive agreed to allocate £1,433,000 from its dedicated schools grant (DSG) to the school.

In a statement, councillor Frances Nicholson said: "The DfE's official insisted on their design and contractor, saying they knew best – and they failed. They have put some money in to rectify their mistakes, but it's not enough.

"What is absolutely outrageous is that the council is being asked to carry the can for the DfE."

Claire Winter, the council's executive director for children, families and education,  said that not providing this funding would lead to even higher costs for the council in the years ahead.

She said: "The cost of providing alternative spaces for children who could not be schooled at Hill View runs into the many millions of pounds.

"Fixing this is the least these children deserve.

"By September they should be able to use the bulk of the building, and we are expecting 20 more children to enter the school in the autumn, with a further 20 pupils joining in February 2026."

Demand for SEND education resources has vastly exceeded government funding for years, with Somerset's own Dedicated Schools Grant deficit now predicted to exceed £100m in light of this decision.

The Liberal Democrat leader of Somerset Council, Bill Revans, is to write to the DfE to express the council's concerns about the school's delivery.

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