Overcrowded school forced to ‘teach students in cupboards’ due to lack of space

Jake Richards, Labour’s candidate for the Rother Valley seat, says Maltby Hilltop School, built in to 1970s, is having to teach youngsters with specialist education needs and disabilities in cupboards and portable cabins, ‘with thin walls and loud floors’, due to overcrowding in the main building.

He has written to the Education Secretary to demand answers over how the department will ensure classes will be held in suitable accommodation.

Maltby Hilltop School is a specialist school for pupils aged two to 19 with severe learning difficulties and complex needs.

One 14 year old student has not been able to attend school, as he has autism and is ‘unable to manage his conditions in classes taught in such an environment’.

The good rated school has capacity for 103 pupils – but currently has 132 students enrolled.

Warren Carratt, chief executive officer of the Nexus Multi Academy Trust & The Evolve Trust, which is responsible for the school, told the local democracy reporting service that the issue is being experienced by specialist schools nationally, which are facing a “perfect storm” of more children needing specialist provision along with a lack of investment.

A BBC News investigation found that 52 of SEND schools in England had more children in classes than their number of commissioned places.

Mr Carratt added that since reforms came into place in 2014, the number of youngsters being issued with education, health and care plans (EHCP) continues to rise year on year, and the demand for specialist placements rises in line with the number of EHCPs.

“What we’ve had is a perfect storm, and local authorities are assessing more and more children to need a specialist place, whilst at the same time, since 2010, have not had any real capital investment to increase efficiency and capacity.”

Maltby Hilltop was due to be rebuilt under the government’s schools for the future programme, which was scrapped in 2010.

Mr Carratt added that as there has been no replacement programme, a number of specialist schools which would have been eligible for a rebuild did not receive any capital investment.

“The DofE have got the schools building programme now, but special schools don’t seem to feature at all in the programme.

“We need an acceptance from central government that there is a chronic issue in high needs sufficiency, which won’t be met by opening 10s of new special schools across the country, but needs to work in parallel with a capital investment and rebuilding programme for specialist schools up and down the country, That’s what’s desperately needed.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said “We want every child, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), to benefit from a world class education.

“We are providing £2.6 billion in capital funding between 2022 and 2025 to help deliver new places and improve support for children and young people with SEND or who will benefit from alternative provision.

“This is in addition to increasing our high needs funding by more than 50 per cent compared with 2019 – to over £10 billion by 2023-24.”