A former Nottingham primary school could be used to create 80 additional specialist school places for children with social, emotional and mental health needs.
Nottingham City Council’s Executive Board is being asked to approve plans to lease the former Snape Wood Primary School site in Bulwell to Raleigh Education Trust, which runs Westbury Academy.
Snape Wood Primary School is due to close on 31 August 2026. Under the proposal, the site on Aspen Road would be adapted and reopened as a specialist provision for pupils aged five to 16, to be known as Willowfield Academy North.
The council is also being asked to approve spending of up to £2,310,433 from its High Needs Provision Capital Allocation grant to fund the scheme. The money would come from Department for Education capital funding allocated to councils to create new places and improve provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and those requiring alternative provision.
The report says the expansion would be delivered as a satellite site of the existing Westbury Academy, subject to public consultation by Raleigh Education Trust and approval from the Department for Education because the proposal counts as a “significant change” to an academy.
If approved, the new provision is expected to open in January 2027 and provide 80 additional specialist places by September 2028.
The report says Nottingham is seeing growing numbers of children with special educational needs and disabilities, while mainstream schools have identified that they are unable to meet increasingly complex needs. It adds that special schools do not have enough space, meaning some children are being placed in more expensive independent specialist schools outside the local authority area.
Council officers say increasing the number of local specialist places would help reduce costs and improve education for children with social, emotional and mental health needs. The report also says it would reduce the number of children being excluded from school or being taught in unsuitable alternative provision.
The proposal forms part of Nottingham City Council’s SEND Sufficiency Strategy 2023-28, which was approved by the Executive Board in September 2023 and updated in February 2026. The strategy sets out how the council plans to use high needs capital funding to increase and improve specialist SEND provision for children and young people with complex needs or Education, Health and Care Plans.
The council’s report says its total High Needs Provision Capital Allocation for 2021/22 to 2026/27 is £31.095 million. Of that, £21.179 million has already been committed to phases one and two of the SEND strategy, leaving £9.916 million available for phase three. Further Section 106 and Basic Needs Grant funding has also been allocated to SEND capital projects.
Phases one and two of the strategy aim to create 326 specialist places between 2023 and 2028, with capital investment of £29.253 million. The report says the Snape Wood proposal would create 80 places at a lower average capital cost per place than other specialist school expansions.
The total scheme cost is listed as £2,310,433. This includes £1,885,433 for works to be carried out by Raleigh Education Trust, a £335,000 contingency for possible condition and repair works, £40,000 for site security during the works and £50,000 for the council’s legal, project management and grant administration costs.
The contingency would be held by the council and only released to Raleigh Education Trust if repair or condition works are identified and costs are submitted. The report says it would not be used to widen the scope of the project without separate approval.
Council officers say Raleigh Education Trust was the only organisation able to rapidly establish 80 specialist places after interest was sought from regional providers. The trust already operates Westbury Academy and is described in the report as an established partner in Nottingham’s SEND system.
The report says Raleigh Education Trust has carried out feasibility work on adapting the Snape Wood site. The trust would lead the building work, while the council would enter into a grant agreement and lease arrangement with the trust.
A 125-year lease on usual academy terms is proposed, with Raleigh Education Trust taking on responsibility for the site on a full repairing and insuring basis. A licence to alter would also be required before construction works could be carried out.
The council says using the former Snape Wood Primary School site would avoid leaving the building vacant after the school closes. The report identifies vandalism after closure as a risk, but says this would be mitigated by entering into a lease as soon as possible after August 2026 and transferring responsibility for securing the building to Raleigh Education Trust.
The report says the council is currently spending £2.7 million on 31 pupils in independent specialist schools, with costs increasing year on year. It also says unregistered alternative provision placements cost more than double a placement at Westbury Academy, and that it is not lawful for pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan to attend unregistered alternative provision for most of their education.
The scheme is also linked to the council’s Dedicated Schools Grant recovery plan, which aims to save £12.9 million from high needs revenue spending by 2030. The report says the Snape Wood proposal is expected to contribute an estimated saving of £3.84 million, based on reducing high-cost out-of-area placements, exclusions and use of high-cost unregistered alternative provision.
The report notes that the school site was largely still registered in the name of Nottinghamshire County Council because of historic land ownership arrangements dating back to Nottingham becoming a unitary authority in 1998. The council says most of the title issue has been resolved, but a further strip of land on the eastern side of the site still needs to be transferred before lease completion.
The Executive Board is due to consider the proposal on 16 June 2026.
