North Yorkshire councillors have backed plans to redevelop a former high school to provide places for children and young people with specialist educational needs.
Members of North Yorkshire Council’s executive have voted in favour of a 120-place special school being created at the former Grammar School site in Grammar School Lane, Northallerton.
The site has been unused since 2021, when pupils from the former grammar school moved to the Allertonshire School site on Brompton Road.
Plans to redevelop the building were first submitted to the government in 2022, when the area was identified as having one of the council’s most urgent needs for additional special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision.
In asking the Department for Education (DfE) to proceed with the redevelopment, the council will reject an offer of £5.6m from the government to provide specialist places in mainstream schools.
North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for education, learning and skills, Cllr Annabel Wilkinson, said both options included some risk but the plan to proceed with the redevelopment was preferred.
She told colleagues: “The report before you outlines the benefits and risks of both options and recommends that the executive ask the DfE to continue with the delivery of the new school.
“The report sets out several reasons why the school remains needed within the current system. Demand is continuing to rise as expected, the proposed location supports children in the north of the county, and there is potential for reduced dependency on independent schools, often much further away.”
The councillor said that by moving ahead with the redevelopment, future decisions about special schools would be taken outside of the council by the DfE, with the potential for some reforms to affect demand for places.
The proposal forms part of a wider programme to expand SEND provision across the county.
This includes a new secondary school for autistic students in Harrogate and a planned specialist school in Osgodby, near Selby, for 100 children aged three to 19 with complex needs.
Demand for SEND support in North Yorkshire has risen sharply in recent years, with the number of pupils supported by Education, Health and Care Plans increasing by more than 110 per cent since 2016, to more than 6,400 children and young people.
Over the same period, special school places have increased from 820 in 2017 to a planned 1,466 by September this year.
The proposals come as the Government prepares major reforms to the SEND system, with a new Schools White Paper expected later this year.
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