Somerset special needs school opening delayed until 2024

The opening of a new specialist school has been delayed again until the autumn of 2024.

Hill View Academy, planned for the village of Ash, Somerset, was scheduled to open in September 2022.

The Department for Education (DfE) said construction was delayed due to a change in contractor.

The DfE also said Wave Multi-Academy Trust would no longer be its sponsor following a poor Ofsted rating.

The trust, which runs several schools for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Devon and Cornwall , was issued with a "termination warning notice" after one of its academies was judged "inadequate" by Ofsted inspectors.

A new trust to run the school instead of Wave has yet to be appointed. The DfE said Wave's poor Ofsted rating has not contributed to the school's delay.

The DfE said that in the interim, children with special needs would be taught in mainstream schools, at a cost of £1.2m per term.

When it opens, the academy is designed to cater for up to 120 SEND students, including those with speech, language and communication difficulties, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The opening date had previously been revised after delays with the survey work and the DfE terminating its contract with the first construction firm.

A DfE spokesperson said: "Construction of the special school in Martock and Ash was delayed due to a change in contractor, a protracted planning process and additional archaeology works.

"These have now been resolved and the school is due to open in September 2024.

"Local authorities are responsible for placing children within their area into suitable schools to meet their statutory duty to provide sufficient school places."

Somerset does not currently have enough provision for pupils with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs in its state schools.

Its only one is the Sky Academy in Taunton, which itself was judged "inadequate" by Ofsted in May 2022.

A county council spokesman said: "These approaches have implications for children, whereby provision may not be as complete or good as would be expected from a maintained special school.

"There are also financial implications - in particular for independent non-maintained special schools (INMS), which can cost £40,000 per year per child more than an equivalent place in a state-maintained setting.

"Although it is unlikely that the new school would take all 120 pupils at its opening, the lack of these places in the school system and the resulting use of INMS places indicates avoidable spend for every term that the school's opening is delayed."

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