A dash to build four new special school classrooms from scratch by September only began in February when it became clear there weren’t enough spaces for pupils, the council has explained.

Slough Borough Council leaders agreed earlier this month to spend more than £4 million on building the new classrooms at Arbour Vale School. They said this was to make sure there are enough special school spaces in Slough at the start of the new school year.

Currently 38 children with special educational needs are without a school place in Slough.

A council spokesperson said they only knew the full extent of the shortfall after all the children had their education and healthcare plans (EHCPs) completed earlier this year.

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The spokesperson told the Observer: “By 15 February this year, as part of its normal processes, the local authority had to let all Year 6 pupils with an EHCP know where their secondary placement would be the following September.

“This means that each young person and their family had a review with a SEND case officer and their school where they expressed their preferences. As these reviews took place, it became clear that more than 30 pupils would require a special school place, which was significantly higher than had been predicted previously.”

They added: “However, this planning could not define the actual destinations of pupils for this September until some had their EHC plans finalised, and others had their Year 6 annual review.

“It only became clear over the Autumn 2023 and start of the Spring term 2024 that the Council needed more capacity at Arbour Vale School. February 15th 2024 was the date when numbers had to be confirmed but the Council had indicative numbers before that.”

Council documents also say that the children without places had all been ‘known to the council’ as they are pupils at Slough primary schools.

But they said ‘no forward plan’ had been made for these pupil’s when the children’s services department was under different management.

The council spokesperson said it is ‘difficult to comment’ on the decisions of previous managers. However they said the council’s special educational needs services had shown ‘significant improvements’ since new management took over in March 2023.

They also said reviews of pupils’ secondary school needs will ‘happen much earlier in future years.’

The dash to build the new classrooms was approved by council leaders on June 3. They agreed to rush the process through – without giving the rest of the council to scrutinise the plans or allow companies to compete for the construction contract.

The council spokesperson explained that the chosen contractor Lansdowne SIPS was the only one able to meet the council’s requirements.

The spokesperson said: “We are pleased that we have an excellent solution for these 38 young people and the additional classrooms are of very high quality. For example, the new buildings are so eco-friendly that they will reduce the overall carbon footprint of the school.”