Exclusive
Bradstow School in Broadstairs is set to shut for good next August.
The school and residential home, for children aged between 5-19 years with severe intellectual disabilities who are on the autistic spectrum continuum, is maintained by the London Borough of Wandsworth with 14 other councils, including Kent County Council, placing children there.
Currently KCC is the largest user of the site with placements of 14 of the 33 children compared to just four from Wandsworth.
Wandsworth Council says it has invested £41million for SEND provision since 2021 to keep youngsters within the borough. Proposals for KCC to take over the Bradstow School site have not come to fruition with Wandsworth now saying this has resulted in the “difficult decision to propose closure by August 2025, pending a comprehensive consultation process.”
Bradstow School has played an important role in supporting children with complex learning needs and autism since 1990, when it was inherited by Wandsworth following the abolition of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA).
As a residential special school, Bradstow provides accommodation for children attending school during term time and returning to families and carers during school holidays.
Wandsworth Council says its aim is to support children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) locally, keeping them educated and cared for within Wandsworth or as close to their homes as possible.
The council investment in SEND provision in Wandsworth includes 246 additional school places; £7 million on adapting existing buildings, creating 182 new spaces, and £34 million to be spent on a purpose-built expansion of Paddock Secondary and sixth form school.
A Wandsworth Council spokesperson said Bradstow School operates within a challenging financial landscape and the unwillingness of councils to pay the levels of fees needed to maintain the quality and financial viability of the school has forced the authority to look at other options.
Wandsworth worked with Kent County Council from November 2021, following a meeting chaired by the Regional Schools Commissioner, to explore the potential for transferring the provision to Kent County Council.
Kent County Council has recently decided not to proceed with a transfer.
Wandsworth now proposes closure for Bradstow by August 2025, pending a comprehensive consultation process.
‘The right decision’
Cllr Kate Stock, Wandsworth Cabinet Member for Children, said:“The decision to consult on the closure of the school was not taken lightly. However, this proposal reflects our commitment to placing children’s needs first.
“We have invested £41 million since 2021 in ensuring that children with special educational needs can access high quality support locally, as our priority is to keep them close to their family and friends wherever possible.
“Combined with the financial challenges facing the school, and after exhausting all other options available to us at this time, we felt it was the right decision to propose closing Bradstow School.
“The upcoming consultation process is crucial, and we are committed to gathering feedback from all stakeholders to make the best possible decision for the children and families served by Bradstow.
“Our priority is to ensure that any transition, if the decision goes ahead, is smooth and that children continue to receive high-quality, specialised support. We thank Bradstow’s dedicated staff for their invaluable service over the years and will work with them closely throughout this process.”
The consultation will begin in January 2025 to allow Wandsworth Council to assess options and if the decision to close the school goes ahead, the council says it will work with school leaders and families to plan for a smooth transition for each child.
A Kent County Council (KCC) spokesperson said: “KCC is working to find alternative educational provision for the pupils currently attending Bradstow School.
“Individual plans for each student will seek to minimise the disruption to young people and their families arising from the transition.”
Ofsted and restriction
In June, The Isle of Thanet News revealed back up plans to move children out of Bradstow School in Broadstairs were being made by Kent County Council.
The ‘parallel’ plans came on the heels of Ofsted inspections of social care provision at Bradstow School that initially resulted in a restriction of accommodation notice, preventing further children from being admitted to the home.
That restriction was lifted after a follow-up inspection last December but a rating of ‘requires improvement’ remained. This applies to the residential operations, the education provision at the school has been rated Outstanding by Ofsted.
KCC has listed a number of ongoing concerns, including that of a social care and police investigation into medication errors at the school.
Asset disposal
In February The Isle of Thanet News reported that an internal document drawn up by consultants and focusing on asset management at Wandsworth Council listed potential sale of several properties including Bradstow School.
The document was revealed by the South London Press after it was discovered by Councillor Peter Graham, from Wandsworth council’s Conservative opposition.
An asset management document published by the authority last year examined viability of retaining, improving or disposing of properties and listed Bradstow School as a “very high value site for alternate use.”
Expect another housing development,nothing else makes sense after reading this article
With the exponential rise in pupils being found to be on the spectrum or with other special needs – it makes no sense whatsoever for this school to be closed.
It has already been cited in other articles that mainstream schools are unable to provide the levels of support required.
More such special schools are urgently required – not less.
Council Tax will just have to rise to pay for the additional provision. More people are producing more special needs children so we will just have to dig a little deeper into our pockets . . .
God DAMN the ableism that reeks out of this comment is horrendous.
I doubt if a greater proportion of people are producing “more special needs kids”. Rather, the methods for diagnosing neurodivergent conditions have improved considerably in recent years.
Makes perfect sense to close it, it’s old and from an age where provision was niche not mainstream, wamdsworth are changing their approach to suit our modern age. It would be impossible to offer residential places to the numbers diagnosed these days.
When does special become normal ? Or less special? There’s patently an issue with society and the way it looks after itself at all levels when in an age of bountiful food, medical advances, the welfare state, decent free education , the nhs that there are seemingly so many that need so much extra help, or are parents more inclined to push more of their needs onto the state these days?
It’ll not be many generations before the problems of excess weight , spcial care for the elderly and educational/developmental iissues bring the country to a standstill and they become too great a burden for the economy to bear.
The visible results of pretending that excess weight is ok ,and “any weight is a healthy weight if you’re happy” and that the rules of excess calories in compared to energy expenditure being seen as an inconvenient reality that need to be ignored to protect peoples sensibilities , are surely now so patently ansurd that attitudes need to change, if that meams people get upset by a dose of science/ reality so ne it.
You can’t tax a society into well being and if you are to try, council tax is the wrong way of doing so as it nears very little relation to income or the services a house/home may use.
Stay on topic. You pivoted so quickly with whataboutery regarding weight/elderly its safe to assume you’re here in bad faith.
There is no dispute that the SEN provision is desperately needed what has brought about this decision is the total mismanagement of the school leaving millions of debt owed. continuous hiring of agency staff at extortionate rates with no experience leaves little time to address the needs of the children as is stated in their individual plans, thus safeguarding issues arise and children are not looked after properly or safely. All Bradstow had to do was to put the needs of the children first and the rest would have fallen into place. Management should be ashamed of themselves and face safeguarding concerns on behalf of the children. Oh let’s not forget most children are pre verbal and cannot speak for themselves so have to accept the poor quality of care.
I like how you blame the quality of care on the staff and organisation, whilt forgetting they’ve been hamstrung like all local schools, by fourteen years of purposeful underfunding by the last Tory government.
Not impressed……. You do know that most, not all but most were on and still are on a very very good wage working there as it’s run by Wandsworth council…… this place has been on a very slippery slope for a good few years now. Extremely understaffed with good proper staff, not managed. Lots and I mean lots of cover ups all to do with the young people, the staff, management, medicines etc. Closing this place is the best thing for it. Lots of upper management should be held accountable for turning a blind eye on many many occasions. Run very very badly by people who just want to line their pockets. I myself hope those responsible for it’s downfall hope to see some justice served for how badly the young people and staff have been treated.
Nobody -Do you know for a fact that “most children [at Bradstow School] are pre-verbal”?