Cash-strapped councils have in the past year paid £18.1 million to private special schools that have repeatedly failed standards inspections, a Schools Week investigation has found.
Nearly a third of English councils are sending children to such schools, some of which charge upwards of £100,000 a year.
The estimated cost of a SEND private school place nationally is £61,500, compared with £23,900 in state special schools.
Over the past year at least four councils each spent more than £1 million on schools that failed repeatedly to meet the independent school standards. Surrey County Council spent nearly £6 million.
But the true amount is likely much higher.
‘It’s an indictment of the failure by central and local government’
Ten local authorities admitted sending children to the schools, but refused to disclose how much they have paid in fees.
Eleven councils did not respond to a freedom of information request and refused to answer any questions.
“It is imperative that children with special educational needs are able to access high-quality provision,” said Margaret Mulholland, SEND and inclusion specialist at the ASCL leaders’ union.
“Evidence of this not happening is desperately worrying and another sign of a broken system.”
Stephen Kingdom, of the Disabled Children’s Partnership, said the situation was “an indictment of the failure by central and local government.
“Independent special schools play an important part in the range of provision available to support children with special educational needs and disabilities.
“But that should not include schools that are failing to meet required standards.”
Millions for schools not meeting standards
A previous Schools Week investigation found hundreds of fee-paying schools failed to meet independent school standards in inspections carried out since September 2021.
Eleven were private special schools that failed multiple inspections, including their most recent.
Six had received more than £1 million each from local councils for SEND provision since last March.
Wemms Education Centre received at least £4.2 million from five councils. More than £3 million came from Surrey.
The school failed to meet independent school standards in its last three inspections, and was rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted in 2023. Last year inspectors noted issues with the complaints procedure and the school’s leadership.
The school did not respond to a request for comment.
Lewis Charlton Learning Centre in Leicestershire received at least £2 million.
Half of that came from Derbyshire County Council, which sends 18 children to the schools.
School fails five of six inspections
The school has failed to meet the standards in five of six inspections in recent years, and has twice been rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted.
Its most recent inspection in January found the quality of the school’s education was still not up to scratch.
The school appointed a new headteacher, Vickie Perkins, in January.
She said that “whilst one area of the inspection remains below the threshold, this is purely due to the time required for the full implementation of our initiatives.”
SEND pupils now received tailored support, Perkins said, and changes in the school’s leadership structure had “created a strong foundation for continued progress”.
Derbyshire did not respond to a request for comment.
Dudley Port School in the Midlands was paid at least £1.9 million from seven local authorities, including £1 million from Sandwell Borough Council. Its fees reach £110,000 a year.
The school is owned by Horizon, a company backed by Graphite Capital, a private investment company.
Schools Week previously reported that Horizon made a £4.1 million profit in 2022.
The school did not meet independent school standards in two inspections last year, and received a ‘requires improvement’ rating from Ofsted.
Inspectors said staff did not adequately meet the needs of pupils with speech, language and communication requirements. Some pupils had significant gaps in their reading knowledge.
Dudley Port School and Horizon did not respond to a request for comment.
Councils shell out
Surrey County Council spent the most on fees to the schools included in Schools Week’s analysis, paying £5.96 million to two private special schools.
Clare Curran, a cabinet member, said the council had “a robust quality assurance process in place” for independent special schools, and it was keeping the progress of both schools “under close review.”
Placements at one school had initially been “paused” until quality and safeguarding reviews had been completed, and children who wished to leave the schools had been supported in finding new placements.
Curran noted that local authorities’ powers are limited. They cannot remove pupils from schools without going through a statutory process.
Sandwell, Medway and Derbyshire councils each paid between £1 million and £1.4 million.
A spokesperson for Sandwell said: “We recognise that keeping children in schools requiring improvement may raise concerns; however, sufficiency needs play a crucial role in ensuring that every child has access to local education.
“Our priority remains the well-being and educational outcomes of the children, and we continuously monitor the school’s progress and support them in addressing the areas identified for improvement.”
A Medway spokesperson said it had originally planned to remove children from the schools listed in this investigation.
“However, we were then informed that new proprietors were taking over,” they said.
“We worked with the new provider to ensure the transfer was completed as quickly as possible, and we have since maintained regular contact and carried out visits to ensure the quality is improving. We are confident that future inspections will evidence this improvement.”
£10m for school where Ofsted found safety issues
Pontville School, a private special school in Lancashire, failed its most recent inspection in December.
It had previously received consecutive ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ grades, so is not included in the analysis above. But the latest Ofsted report raised serious issues about pupils’ welfare and safety.
At least 13 councils have more than 130 children between them at the school.
This is despite the report finding that “bullying, prejudiced behaviour, threats of violence and physical aggression” are common.
Pontville pupils have suffered “serious physical harm” during fights with other pupils, Ofsted reported. In some cases this led to “multiple and ongoing surgery”, while staff were said to be “responding to violence from pupils with further violence”.
The school has taken at least £10.8 million from councils since last March.
Four local authorities spent more than £1 million on Pontville fees. Of those, St Helens spent more than £2 million, and Sefton spent £4.1 million.
Huge profits for special schools group
Pontville is owned by the Witherslack Group, which runs 28 private special schools.
The group is owned by Mubadala Capital, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi’s second-largest sovereign wealth fund.
Witherslack made a £34.8 million profit in 2022-23, its most recent accounts show.
A spokesperson said the safety and care of pupils was its “utmost priority”. It worked “constantly to ensure our schools meet the highest standards of education, safeguarding and care”.
The company noted that each of its schools is rated as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.
That included Pontville as its last inspection was not graded, so it was still rated ‘good’.
“Witherslack Group acknowledges the findings of Ofsted’s recent inspection at Pontville School and has taken immediate action to address the inspection’s findings,” the spokesperson said.
“We will continue to provide additional support to the school and ensure that our action plan is quickly and fully implemented.”
A St Helens Borough Council spokesperson said that in response to the December inspection it had “ceased new placements while we seek assurance from the school that the issues highlighted by Ofsted have been fully addressed”.
It is working to expand the “size and range” of its own provision.
“In addition, the authority has made unannounced visits to the site to reassure us as to the welfare of our pupils,” they said.
Sefton council did not respond to a request for comment.
‘Systemic failure’
Marijke Miles, a leader in a maintained specialist provision, said she was “saddened and frustrated” by the findings.
But she said the issue should not become “a convenient smokescreen”.
“There will always be a need for independent provision, much of which is very high-quality and has a high cost rightly associated with supporting pupils with the most complex of needs.
“Making parts of the independent sector into some sort of boogie man is far too convenient for a government who have had the opportunity to invest and still haven’t.
“The sums involved still represent a very small proportion of the billions required to enable a system that does the job it should.”
‘There will always be a need for independent provision’
Claire Dorer, the chief executive of the National Association of Special Schools, said there had been “systematic failure” by successive governments to address the SEND crisis.
As a result, “placements in struggling schools of all types may have to be maintained through a lack of viable alternatives.
“Unequivocally, we want to see all children being well educated in schools where they feel safe and are safe.”
But she noted there was no evidence to suggest that the problems identified at the small number of schools were problems common to independent special schools.
