Families of children at a special needs school were given just weeks to find new places for them after the company running it announced it would close at the end of the summer term.
Crossley Manor school near St Helens, in Merseyside, caters for children with complex social and mental health needs including autism and ADHD from across the north-west. It was set up two years ago by Elysium Healthcare, a company funded by a private equity firm, BC Partners, which runs more than 60 mental healthcare clinics and schools in the UK, many for the NHS.
The school has 11 students, whose fees of about £35,000 a year are typically funded by their local authority. Elysium Healthcare said the low number meant it was not financially viable.
However, the local council said it had been moving new students to the school when the decision was announced, and its attempts to support the company to keep the school open had been rejected.
Sarah Davies, whose 11-year-old son attends the school, said he was devastated when he heard it was to close. He has autism spectrum disorder and was struggling in specialist provision in a mainstream school before joining Crossley Manor in October 2017 after the local authority persuaded Davies to visit.
“Building up the rapport with the staff there took a while but over the past six months he’s built up relationships and started to open up and been able to talk about how he’s feeling. He was doing really well and then all of a sudden it’s been taken away,” she said.
“This is his fourth school in four years. For a child to constantly think ‘they don’t want me’ is awful. He was happily settled and thought he was going to be there until he was 19 with these same friends and peers.”
Another parent, Steve Lunt, said his son had “come on leaps and bounds” in the year he had been at the school but his anxiety had increased since he was told he would have to move. “The website says ‘we care about people’ but they’re not doing a very good job,” he said.
Lunt said his local authority, St Helens, had found a place at another school but it was 45 minutes away from both home and the hospital that cares for his son, who has epilepsy and autism.
“If a local authority closes a school it takes a year or longer because they have so much to do. This is worse because it’s Send [special educational needs and disability] children and they’ve closed it with no notice at the worst time of the year,” he said.
St Helens council said it had been “actively transitioning pupils” to Crossley Manor at the time of the announcement. A spokeswoman said: “Following notification of the closure, representatives from the local authority met with the proprietor to offer assistance moving forward but sadly this was not taken up.”
She said that as new students were enrolled at Crossley Manor the school had an opportunity to “reflect on the legal tests regarding their ability to meet the needs of pupils on an ongoing basis. This could reasonably include the ongoing viability of the school.”
Elysium Healthcare said the decision to close the school had been made “with great reluctance”. It said: “For the past two years school staff have worked tirelessly to make the school a success and build the roll of pupils. Unfortunately, we were unable to attract sufficient pupils. We are now focused on supporting local authorities, families and students to find the best alternative placement before the new school term commences in September.”
A spokeswoman said the company had “fully intended to run the school for the long term” but the council “could not guarantee additional pupil numbers and, on that basis and given the high level of uncertainty, we were unable to continue”.
Elysium Healthcare is part of a web of UK companies that declare an ultimate owner in Luxembourg. In 2017 the firm reported revenues of £53m and a profit of £9m.
