Schools - public notices - Proposal to expand and increase the capacity of Chiltern Special School, Houghton Regis

Proposal to expand and increase the capacity of Chiltern Special School, Houghton Regis Creating and relocating 115 additional places for pupils with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Notice is hereby given for related proposals in accordance with Section 19 (1) of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 and the statutory guidance for proposers and decision makers ‘Making significant changes (‘prescribed alterations’) to maintained schools, January 2023’; That Central Bedfordshire Council, Priory House, Monks Walk, Chicksands, Shefford, Beds SG17 5TQ intends to make a prescribed alteration to Chiltern Special School, Kingsland Campus Parkside Drive, Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire, LU5 5PX from 1 September 2024.

This Statutory Consultation invites interested parties to respond to the proposed increase in capacity at Chiltern Special School. This will create 115 additional places for complex needs, securing 419 places in total. The proposal will align with the relocation of the former primary school site at Beech Road, Dunstable, to the Kingsland campus, Houghton Regis. This will result in the discontinuing use of the Beech Road site. This is where a school operating over multiple sites proposes to cease operations on one (or more) of its sites. The proposal will be for a prescribed alteration and not a school closure. These changes are due to be implemented for the 1 September 2024.

In January 2023, Executive considered the future of specialist school place provision. Executive recognised the need for more places following feedback from parents and updated forecasts. It was agreed to continue work on the delivery of the short to medium-term need for additional places within Central Bedfordshire, whilst working on the strategic specialist place plan to meet longer term need.

Central Bedfordshire Council proposes to increase the capacity for Chiltern Special School to enable the school to meet the increasing demand for special school places within the area. 

In order to increase the capacity at Chiltern Special school the Department for Education requires Central Bedfordshire Council to publish a proposal to make a prescribed alterations as set out in the guidance Making significant changes (‘prescribed alterations’) to maintained schools.  

Chiltern Special School proposal

Chiltern Special School operates from two sites, their main site on Kingsland Campus Parkside Drive, Houghton Regis which supports Secondary School Pupils aged 7 to 19, and the Beech Road Site in Dunstable, formally used for primary school places for pupils aged 3 to 7.

The proposed expansion to the former Universal Technical College (UTC), located on the Kingsland campus in Houghton Regis is less than a one-minute walking distance from the current Chiltern School on the Kingsland Campus. Up to 115 additional places will be provided for pupils with ASD and complex needs. 50 of these places have already been accommodated with the additional 65 totalling 419 places.

By relocating pupils from the former primary school site through the refurbishment of the UTC building, will allow for all pupils at the school to benefit from enhanced SEND provision, currently not available or not accessed by all pupils due to the school being on a split site. The current primary and secondary sites do not allow for further co-located growth to meet the need for additional ASD places.

The expansion and co-location of the 2 current Chiltern Special School sites will enable the school to provide additional support to students, including:

• rebound therapy can only be offered for 20% of the week in the current site as there is not a dedicated space
• additional sensory spaces
• additional dedicated classrooms, group rooms and create a secure outdoor space for pupils with ASD

On 9 January 2024, Executive approved the launch of a full statutory consultation, on the expansion to the UTC in Houghton Regis to increase its capacity by 115 places, this is to support the relocation for the pupils from the Beech Road site in Dunstable.

The proposals set out to meets a key priority of Central Bedfordshire Council SEND Strategy 2022-25.

SEND Strategy Plan 

Ensuring suitable educational provision

Central Bedfordshire Council has a statutory duty to provide school places for all children, including those who have special educational needs and/or a disability. There is a duty to ensure that a school place is in place to meet this demand within the Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) sector.

Central Bedfordshire Council is committed to ensuring that all children can access high-quality education, where possible to attend school as close to where they live.. If a child or young person requires specialist provision, we want to be able to identify this quickly and secure places that allow for them to move quickly into this provision. We will work closely with our special schools to continue to provide high quality provision.

This is outlined in the co-produced (Council and NHS) Specialist Place Plan 2023.

The Specialist School Place Plan 2022 – 2030 was reviewed by Overview and Scrutiny in October 2023 and has been revised to take account of a growing need for specialist provision as well as the prevalence of different types of need. Autism continues to be the main area of special educational need of children and young people with SEND in Central Bedfordshire with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs coming second.  

Ivel Valley and Chiltern are ‘area based special schools’ and meet a range of complex needs. Broadly, Chiltern takes most of its students from the west of Central Bedfordshire, while Ivel Valley takes nearly 90% of students from the east. Pupils from Ampthill and Flitwick and Cranfield attend both Chiltern and Ivel Valley.

Objectives – including how the proposal would increase educational standards and parental choice

The objective of the proposal is to ensure that Central Bedfordshire Council can continue to fulfil its statutory duty to provide sufficient school places for children with SEND in Central Bedfordshire.

Central Bedfordshire Council and the Governing Body of Chiltern Special School have carefully considered the increase of the school’s capacity and believe that it would bring potential benefits to the school and the local community including:

• ensuring that local children with special educational needs can attend their local school
• the expanded school would continue to have the same values, ethos and links with the town that currently exist
• an increase would build upon an Ofsted ‘good’ school which is already very much part of the community, providing the opportunity for the wider and expanding community to benefit
• an opportunity to continue to raise standards of attainment, building on existing best practice and extending it to more children
• facilitate more school-based SEND (Special Educational Needs) provision

The proposed change would not adversely affect parental choice within the town. This is due to parents unable to express a choice for SEN provisions via school admissions. Placements are allocated by the local authority and parents express a preference for their child with an EHC Plan, to be considered for a space at the school via the SEND Team at Central Bedfordshire Council. The offer of placement is determined based on if the school would be: 

• suitable for the age, ability, aptitude or SEN of the child or young person, or
• the attendance of the child or young person there would be incompatible with the efficient education of others, or the efficient use of resources

The effect on other educational institutions within the area

There would be no adverse effect on other similar provisions within the area.

Project costs and indication of how these would be met

Expansion of the Kingsland campus which is situated on the grounds of the (UTC) will require a feasibility study to understand the accommodation and infrastructure required.

Central Bedfordshire Council has agreed to fund the additional places from September 2024.

Capital for the proposed expansion is set within the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) and approved by Executive on the 11 October 2022; view report (PDF).

Education standards and diversity of provision

Chiltern Special School is an Ofsted ‘good’ school. Central Bedfordshire Council supports school expansions where schools are rated Good and above.

The Chiltern Special School is already existing to provide a secure and sustainable high-quality education for children with special need in the area. Therefore, increasing spaces at the school would enable more children with the appropriate special educational needs to have access to this provision.

School size

The school operates over two sites. Pupils aged 3 to 7 had previously been based at Beech Road, Primary site in Dunstable and for pupils aged 7 to 19 at the Kingsland Campus Secondary site in Houghton Regis. Chiltern Special School currently has 330 Pupils on roll.

The pupils at the primary Beech Road site have been relocated to the Chiltern school site ahead of the proposed change, this is due to the reactive and responsive requirement to place children with an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) and to co-located growth to meet the need for additional ASD places.

In order to admit more than 200 children, the Department for Education requires the school to increase its capacity. For an increase of 10% or 20 pupils (whichever is the smaller number) the school, governing bodies and local authorities may seek to increase the number of places by following the statutory consultation process. It is important to know that while the current increase to the schools capacity, will full in line with the 10% increase, if Chiltern Special School wish to increase their capacity further, they can admit up to 460 places before having to follow a full statutory consultation process.

Proposed admission arrangements

The admission arrangements for the school will not change. Central Bedfordshire Council’s special educational needs and disabilities team will continue to be the admitting authority for the school.

National curriculum

The Chiltern Special School is a local area special school and as such is not required to follow the National Curriculum. This is due to the individual complex needs for pupils.

Equal opportunity issues

Central Bedfordshire Council has a statutory duty to promote equality of opportunity, eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and foster good relations in respect of nine protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. To consider local needs and implications, an equality impact assessment will be carried out in respect of the proposal. 

Central Bedfordshire Council has a statutory duty to ensure there are sufficient special school places for children that need them. Age and disability are key considerations in respect of this duty and for the Special School Places strategy. 

There would be a continuation of the school’s current policies and procedures to ensure there is no discrimination and to promote equal opportunities and foster good relations. 

Community cohesion 

Chiltern Special School is a local area special school for children aged 2-19 and enables children and young people with significant learning difficulties to remain living at home and attending school in their local community.

This would enhance and improve wider opportunities and experiences within the local community for all families, through extra curricular activities, such as Land based learning, including farm, forest schools and horticulture. This would enable the school to work with local community groups to access physical resources through afterschool and holiday provisions.

Travel and accessibility

The proposed increase in pupil numbers would increase the number of staff employed by the school and likely to increase the number of vehicles needing access to the school.

Due to specialist needs, the majority of pupils will travel in by school transport, therefore the school and Central Bedfordshire Council will continue to mitigate any highways issues.

School premises and playing fields

The additional numbers would be spread across the Kingsland campus and would have no adverse effects on the school premises or playing fields. 

Proposed stages for implementation

Timeline for decision making

As the schools are maintained schools, Central Bedfordshire Council is the responsible body in terms of leading on any statutory processes. The Department for Education’s (DfE) Statutory guidance for proposers and decision makers: ‘Making significant changes (‘prescribed alterations) to maintained schools’ outlines the process.

The statutory process for making prescribed alterations to schools

The process has 4 stages:

• stage 1: publication (statutory proposal/notice
• stage 2: representation (formal consultation)
• stage 3: decision
• stage 4: implementation

Although there is no longer a statutory ‘pre-publication’ consultation period for prescribed alteration changes, there is a strong expectation from the DfE that the local authority will consult interested parties in developing their proposal prior to publication.

The programme for the decision-making process if the proposal is supported to launch a statutory consultation

• Executive Committee meeting: Seek approval to launch a statutory consultation for new special school places, and ARP provision at Shefford Lower School
• statutory consultation (February/April)
• overview and scrutiny committee meeting: Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee consulted (February)
• overview and scrutiny committee meeting: Report to Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee for recommendation to Executive (April)
• Executive Committee meeting: Determination – Report to Executive to consider all responses and determine proposal (June)

If the change is approved by Central Bedfordshire Council, it is anticipated that it would be implemented from 1 September 2024.

Related documents

Executive paper (PDF)

Specialist Place Plan (PDF)

View or download full statutory notice (PDF)

This formal consultation commences on 26 February 2024 and closes on 5 April 2024.

Have your say

Following the close of the consultation, the Council’s Executive will be asked to consider the responses received and determine the proposal at the meeting to be held on 4 June 2024.