Academy trust “twice offered to turn free school into school focusing on special needs provision but was rebuffed by DfE,” local MP states

Avanti Hall School, in Exeter in Devon

A locally-based academy trust twice made offers to take over a free school which has been struggling for pupil numbers and turn it into a special school*, but was rebuffed by the government, its local Labour MP has told Education Uncovered.

Ben Bradshaw, MP for Exeter in Devon, said that the Ted Wragg Trust, which runs all four secondary schools and three primaries in the constituency, had made the offer after what is now the Avanti Hall School had failed an Ofsted inspection as a Steiner free school back in 2018.

Then, earlier this year, the Ted Wragg trust had tried again, he said, as the north London-based Avanti Schools Trust was poised to pull out of running Avanti Hall, after it took it over from the school’s previous Steiner trust in 2019.

Mr Bradshaw’s comments help to explain a question he asked in the House of Commons on Monday, and which Education Uncovered reported on yesterday.

Naming the Ted Wragg Trust and mentioning an offer from it to get involved, Mr Bradshaw had asked an education minister, Claire Coutinho, for an explanation “why the government didn’t listen to this very good idea to improve local special educational needs provision in my constituency, but stuck to its ideological obsessions with private[ly] run academies”.

The offer from the Ted Wragg trust – named after the much-respected late Exeter University academic and Times Educational Supplement columnist – had not been made public, with parents at the school instead told out of the blue in October that Avanti wanted to withdraw and hand it over to another trust, based in Plymouth, called Reach South.

Mr Bradshaw told Education Uncovered: “My understanding is that, both when the Steiner school failed four years ago and again this year, when Avanti first indicated [behind the scenes] that it wanted to withdraw from running the school, that the Ted Wragg trust, which runs most of the secondary education provision in Exeter very successfully, offered to take the  school over and use it to increase special needs provision in the Exeter and wider Exeter area, something that is desperately needed, but that this offer was not taken up.”

I understand that the move would have seen Avanti Hall closed as a mainstream school for five- to 16-year-olds and re-open as a special school*, though the suggested age range of pupils is not known.

Although Mr Bradshaw had been critical on Monday of the government, which of course oversees all takeover discussions in private with academy trusts, in what he has said is its rejection of the Ted Wragg plan, in his conversation with me yesterday he emphasised the school community’s views on this as being important.

He said: “I think [the school’s future] is very much a matter for the school itself. The school clearly didn’t want to be closed and changed in that way, and the parents wanted it to continue with its current educational philosophy and ethos but we also have an emergency situation in Devon at the moement on special needs.

He said Devon, which received a damning report by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission in July on the quality of its provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities, desperately need to improve on this.

Mr Bradshaw added: “The county has been judged to be failing catastrophically and if the government was not prepared to use this as an opportunity to address that problem, then it needs to look for other opportunities to do so.

“[It needs to] increase the provision of special needs provision somewhere else or in existing schools, with more funding, because, currently, hundreds of children and their families are being completely let down.”

Mr Bradshaw had also told me that he had been alerted that Avanti did not consider the school “viable” as far back as June this year, in a call with the Regional Schools Commissioner, Hannah Woodhouse. There had been no sign of Reach South’s involvement at this point.

It is important to try to document these negotiations publicly, since such little information is available officially to parents.

Reach South was revealed by Avanti to parents in October as in line to take over Avanti Hall, with the former seemingly viewing it as financially tricky to operate given low pupil numbers. The decision is due to be ratified by the DfE’s regional advisory board later this month.

I have asked the Ted Wragg trust for a response, but have yet to receive one.

*It sounds to me as if what was planned was a special school, ie one educating only children with special educational needs and disabilities. However, Mr Bradshaw could not be definitive on whether this was the case or whether it would have educated non-SEND pupils as well, and suggested the Ted Wragg trust would be best-placed to answer. Once again, without official transparency it is difficult to be definitive.