Date published: 2025-01-16 | Category: Children's Services
Parents of children at Fosse Way House have received a letter from The Partnership Trust saying that the Fosse Way House residential provision would need to close from September 2025, due to Bath & North East Somerset “no longer… funding students to attend Fosse Way House” from that date.
Bath & North East Somerset Council is making the following statement on this.
Fosse Way House is not a council-run facility and any decisions about its future are matters for The Partnership Trust.
However, the council works closely with schools and others to ensure pupils with special educational needs receive the support set out in their education health and care plans (EHCPs). Provision is reviewed annually so we can act on the most up-to-date needs and provide as much notice as possible to families and providers, so they can plan appropriately.
In this academic year we have placed a small number of young people who are at Fosse Way School into the additional Fosse Way House overnight residential provision on the site.
While Fosse Way House is registered with Ofsted it is not registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and so the provision can only meet educational needs rather than additional health and/or social care needs. Through the ongoing annual review process with settings, families and professionals it has been increasingly difficult to find evidence-based reasons for this purely educational provision. As a result, for the academic year starting in September 2025, we have not identified any children or young people attending Fosse Way School whose special educational needs would be met by this additional overnight residential provision.
We let the school know this in October of last year so they could inform parents with plenty of notice and so it is unfortunate that this information is only now being passed on to parents by the Trust. We are pleased to see that the Trust has now established two dates to meet with parents. We will of course work with the families of the children whose placements at Fosse Way House are due to end in July on any follow-up changes to arrangements we may need to make.
The council’s decision is not due to budget pressures but is because the facility at Fosse Way House is not required to meet the educational needs of young people with special needs in our area.
Clearly, as set out in the letter, there are a number of challenges facing The Partnership Trust in securing a viable future for Fosse Way House. Currently only children on roll at Fosse Way School can use the provision and it has been increasingly difficult to identify students who require educational provision from the Fosse Way House provision as part of their EHCP and who do not have the level of need that would mean a residential provision that was registered with both Ofsted and the CQC was required.
We value the work of Fosse Way School and have been working over a number of years to find ways to improve the viability of the Fosse Way House facility. We will continue to work with the school and support The Partnership Trust in their plans for Fosse Way House so it can continue to benefit young people and our community. We are also grateful that The Partnership Trust have confirmed there will be no changes at all to the provision for the remainder of this academic year.
Ensuring that our young people have access to local, good-quality special needs provision that meets their needs – including modern and fit-for purpose residential care within Bath & North East Somerset - is a key priority for the council, as can be seen in the council’s investment plans including for special needs residential provision at Charlton House.