Cost of new SEND school in London Road, Wembley Central, rises by a third (£7.4m)

 The second stage of the 150 pupil Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) school in London Road, Wembley Central, has risen from an inital cost anaylsis of £14.8m to £22m.

The Key Decision Report says that the reasons for the rise in cost are set out in an Appendix but that is restricted and not open to public viewing.

The report states:

The two alternative options available to the recommended option in this report would be to seek a re-procurement of the main works contract or not deliver the project at all. Within the alternative option to seek a re-procurement, the Council would have the following sub-options:
 

a. Seek tenders from alternative Modular Contractors – this has been discounted as the school has been designed by a specific Modular Contractor to their module sizes so any new contractor would need to
undertake a redesign which would lead to an increase in cost and time.
 

b. Seek tenders from alternative main contractors – this has been discounted as the school has been designed by a Modular Contractor. Any Main Contractor would add their own Overheads and Profit to subcontract the scheme. Alternatively, they could seek to amend the design to a traditional build method. Either way, these options would require a redesign which would lead to increased cost and time.

 The option not to deliver the school build has been discounted as the 150 SEND places to be provided at London Road would not be delivered. The Council would therefore continue to transport SEND pupils out of borough for school places and this would put further revenue pressure on the High Needs Block.

The school will be run by an Academy Trust. The officers' report states that the rise in cost is affordale within the available budget:

As set out in the SEND Programme approved by Cabinet, the project is funded by Basic Need, High Needs Capital Grant and Special Provision Funding all from the DfE.

The programme budget was £44.2m. At the time of drafting this report, £7m has been spent, leaving £37.2m. Therefore, there is enough funding in the programme to award the works contract. Further, any additional costs to the project or programme can be funded via the unallocated 2021 High Needs Capital Grant £3.65m and the recently provided 2024 High Needs Capital Grant of £7.4m from the DfE.

This is a Key Decision and therefore subject to call-in for further scrutiny. The deadline for call-in is tomorrow (May 23rd). If the new call-in conditions are approved at tonight's AGM any call-in would require both opposition parties to support call-in or Labour backbenchersto join in.