Eddisons leads £3m project for Derbyshire special schools expansion
Added by Love Business East Midlands | 17 December 2024
Multi-disciplinary property group Eddisons has helped to secure over £3m of funding for three Derbyshire schools to improve and expand teaching and auxiliary facilities at the three sites, increasing the number of places for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Eddisons’ building consultancy team, which specialises in the education sector, provided feasibility studies and cost estimates for the Esteem Multi-Academy Trust which have now been approved by Derbyshire County Council.
The go ahead for the developments at the three schools in Ilkeston, Long Eaton and Belper will provide much-needed new SEND spaces, with Eddisons’ architecture, sustainability, valuation and building consultancy divisions all involved in overseeing and delivering the projects in 2025.
The £3.2m funding announced by the council will enable schemes at Bennerley Fields School in Ilkeston, Stanton Vale Special School in Long Eaton and the Holbrook School for Autism in Belper to go ahead.
Derbyshire County Council said the new places would be "better geographically spread and be accessible to as many Derbyshire families with high-needs children as possible", rather than building new special schools in specific areas.
The largest of the projects will be at Bennerley Fields School, Ilkeston, where a £2.6m plan will create three additional classrooms to accommodate 24 students, with potential expansion to 30 students from next September.
Refurbishing an existing wing at Stanton Vale Special School in Long Eaton will create 35 additional places for students with SEND by September 2025. At Holbrook School for Autism in Belper the first phase of an improvement project will create two additional teaching spaces for children with autism spectrum disorder.
Jack Cooper, associate director at Eddisons, said:
“We have worked closely with Esteem Multi-Academy Trust for several years and during that time we have delivered a number of different schemes that have helped to expand and improve facilities across their estate.
For the team at Esteem, the fact that we have such a wide range of experts within Eddisons who can provide professional advice on everything from decarbonisation and sustainability to architecture, as well as having acquired a huge amount of in-house education-sector expertise within our building consultancy team, has been a huge advantage.”
Eddisons regional managing partner and head of building consultancy, Ian Harrington, added:
“Education is an important area of growth for us and it is incredibly rewarding, working with academy trusts like Esteem to help them get projects off the ground and see them through to fruition, improving conditions for both students and teachers.
“Over the years we have also built up our education sector expertise working with schools and colleges across the UK to help them submit successful bids for funding to improve their buildings and facilities from the Government Condition Improvement, this year overseeing more than £40m of improvement projects for academy trusts under the scheme.”
