SEND schools Councillors claim private firms are exploiting crisis

A COMPANY opening two new special needs schools in Bristol this September has been criticised by councillors for ‘profiteering’ and ‘exploiting’ the city’s crisis in special needs education.

- Tristan CORK [e-mail]

Liberal Democrat councillors have called for a cap on the profits of companies that run SEND schools, as part of a national campaign.

Bristol has a shortage of school places for children with special educational needs or disabilities, and the council faces a £63 million hole in its school budget, which the Lib Dems say is largely down to the increasing costs and growing demand for SEND provision. With fewer places than children who need them in Bristol, the council is also spending a fortune on sending children with special needs out of the city to go to school.

Two new schools will open in September to increase the SEND capacity in Bristol. Manor Wood School will open next month in the refurbished site of St Pius Catholic Primary School in Withywood, which closed in 2021.

Avonside School is a second new SEND school, and will open this September in a converted office building on an industrial estate in Brislington. Manor Wood School will take children aged between five and 16, while Avonside will be for teenagers with special needs and disabilities, aged between 13 and 19.