‘Don’t let Harrogate’s SEND children down again with more delays to new school opening’ says town’s MP

Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Tom Gordon is stepping up the pressure to open Bilton Woodfield School by the next school term to “avoid failing another generation of SEND children”.

The Lib Dem MP raised the issue of Harrogate’s new SEND school, which has been hit by delays, with the Minister of State for School Standards this week in the House of Commons.

Mr Gordon invited Georgia Gould OBE MP to join him in applying pressure to the school trust and local authority to ensure that there would be no further delays.

“It beggars belief that we’ve spent millions funding this school and yet it sits there empty,” said Mr Gordon.

"Yet the summer holidays are just around the corner and we’ve heard nothing.

“We need to keep applying pressure and get the school open ASAP to avoid failing another generation of SEND children.”

North Yorkshire Council has said it was facing rising demand for specialist education in the county with the number of children with Educational Health Care Plans (EHCPs) rising from 1,700 in 2015 to more than 6,000 in 2025.

Woodfield Community Primary School closed in 2022 after years of falling pupil numbers and an "inadequate" rating by Ofsted.

The following year saw county councillors agree a £3.5 million redevelopment to turn the Harrogate site into a specialist school.

The original opening date for Bilton Woodfield School was mean to be September 2024.

After further delays caused primarily by the search for an academy trust to run the new school, the opening date was then pushed back to September 2025.

Bilton Woodfield School is expected to cater for 80 autistic pupils aged between 11 and 19.

The Government Minister told Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Tom Gordon that she agreed that this is an important issue, saying she wanted to see provision be brought forward.

She also confirmed she would be meeting the MP to discuss it in more detail.