Rivertree Free SEND school in Kempston, Bedford borough’s new special educational needs school, will be complete by mid-November according to the council’s top officer for education, SEND and school infrastructure.
Chris Morris was giving an update to this week’s (2 September) Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the school construction.
“November 12 is when we’re working towards a completion date and handing over to BILTT, the educational trust who will be running the school,” Mr Morris said.
“Obviously the school will then need to do a few soft fittings out themselves, but it means that we’ve got time before Christmas to start looking at transitions for those young people with a start in January.
“We’re now looking at transport because now we have a date we can start looking at children who are eligible for transport and looking at being ready to go for January as well,” he said.
Read: Disappointment as opening of new Kempston SEND school delayed
Mr Morris added that the council is having ongoing meetings with the Department for Education (DfE) about the funding.
“This is a free school so it should be fully funded by the DfE,” he said. “We are still currently funding this as the council, so we are borrowing funding to do this.
“We are putting some questions to the DfE around what else is needed. We have still not got the funding agreement in place, so that’s the other challenging part at the moment with regards to this free school not feeling very free at this moment,” he said.
Cllr John Wheeler (Conservative, Wootton & Kempston Rural) asked if the November date was for the whole site.
“The last time I was there around the back all the sports facilities were coming along slowly, shall we say,” he said.
Mr Morris replied: “Yes, the entire site will be handed over on the 12th, there’ll be no more contractors from the construction arm [of the project].
“There will be contractors from BILTT who will then be installing various different things that they want installed. The complete site will be handed over on November 12,” he said.
By John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
