Plans have been revealed to turn a Herefordshire residential care home for young people into a specialist day school to meet increasing demand in the county.
Woodbury House, Yarkhill, currently provides accommodation and care in a rural setting for up to eight young people with a range of conditions and special educational needs.
But Aspris Children’s Services which owns and manages the property has now applied to convert it into a specialist day school for up to 16 young people.
It says it is “currently struggling to accommodate” pupils at Queenswood School seven miles away, which it also runs, and which children housed at Woodbury House currently attend.
Such children require an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) to be agreed with the local authority, and the number of these “has increased significantly over recent years and continues to show an upward trajectory”, the application says.
“This reflects increases in the population as well as other factors such as the Covid-19 pandemic.”
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With declining demand for residential care, Woodbury House would instead serve as an “annexe” to Queenswood School. This would require “minor internal alterations” to the buildings not requiring planning permission.
Children would then attend between 9am and 3pm Mondays to Fridays during term times, with staff of around 13 on site for slightly longer.
There would be a “net reduction in vehicular movements over the course of a year” from the current residential use, the application says, though it acknowledges opportunities to travel by foot, cycle or public transport are “limited”.
“Students attending the school will generally be transported in shared vehicles, predominantly by private car or taxi given their specific needs,” it explains, adding they will generally be placed via referrals from Herefordshire Council and Gloucestershire County Council.
“Without provision of additional specialist education facilities such as that proposed here, there is a risk that a greater number of local children will need to travel further, and out of area, to receive the specialist education that they require,” it warns.
Comments on the application, numbered 222705, can be made until September 22.
UPDATE: The application was approved on December 5, 2022.
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