A government cost-cutter recommended a special school for severely disabled pupils slash £150,000 from its staffing spend just months before it was shut because it was unsafe.
A Schools Week investigation previously exposed how pupils with profound disabilities were left to go hungry and “contained” in classrooms at Harlow Academy in Nottinghamshire.
Ofsted found “disturbing” levels of neglect as the “lack of staff leaves pupils at imminent risk of harm”. The school was immediately closed after the inspection in January last year.
We can now reveal the government sent one of its school resource management advisers (SRMA) to work with the Evolve Trust, which ran the school at the time, between October and December 2021.
