Proposal to Extend the Capacity at Pen y Cwm Special School

Overview

Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council reviews the capacity of its schools on an annual basis. As such, the Council is responding to the increased demand and growth noted over the course of the last 3 years, in line with pupil placement requests for Pen y Cwm Special School. Pen y Cwm Special School caters for pupils (aged between 3-19 years) with a broad spectrum of complex special educational and medical needs, including profound and multiple learning difficulties. The school currently caters for Blaenau Gwent pupils, along with pupils from Out of County (OOC).

The school mission is: ‘To empower and support individuals to be resilient and independent and to develop skills to reach their potential’.

The Proposal

This consultation builds on the consultation undertaken in 2021 to increase capacity in Pen y Cwm Special School from 175 to 205 learners in 2026 which is more than 10% of the overall capacity of the school. It also progresses elements of Part 2 of the 2021 proposal. Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council propose to extend the capacity at Pen y Cwm Special School from 205 to 250 places, in the long term as detailed in part 2 below. In order to facilitate the extended capacity, the Council remodelled the existing learning environment to create additional classroom spaces and associated facilities i.e. toilets. In addition, and alongside this, the Council identified that post 16 provision would need to be removed from its current location on site and housed in Vision House Ebbw Vale which creates a more sustained provision less than half a mile from the existing building.  The Council are committed to keep working with the school to develop a long-term plan to support sustained growth and development. Therefore, this proposal will be delivered in 2 parts:

  • Part 1, to increase the capacity of Pen y Cwm Special School from 175 to 205 places in preparation for the 2026/27 academic year.  This will also involve:

o   Retrospectively acknowledging the Post 16 provision at Unit 4 Festival Site in Ebbw Vale (including 3 classrooms, sensory room, common room, life skills room, meeting room, catering/dining area, toilets and hygiene facilities)

o   Retrospective acknowledgement of additional classrooms developed in the main school building.

  • Part 2, to further increase the capacity of Pen y Cwm Special School from 205 to 250 places in preparation for the 2030/31 academic year. This will involve continuing with the development of the long-term plan to secure additional capacity including either a new build provision on the land adjacent to the school or remodelling the existing school building to accommodate the increased capacity.

The proposal would support the Blaenau Gwent’s Vision for Education as follows:

'Empowering our communities to be ambitious, ethically informed, life-long learners who lead full and healthy lives.

The Formal Consultation concluded on Sunday 18th January 2026 however, a copy will still be available on the webpage for information.

Therefore, the next steps for the Resource and Planning team will be to submit the Outturn report for a decision to be  made by the Council’s Cabinet in a meeting on 23rd February 2026 whether to proceed to Statutory Notice. Noting the legal obligation, in line with the School Organisation Codes (V2 2018), to be published on our webpage 2 weeks before (9th February 2026)

Please see links provided for the Outturn Report and prepared Statutory Notice. The period which the Statutory Notice will run is from Wednesday 25th February 2026 to Wednesday 25th March 2026.

Consultees can submit their objections on the proposal; during this period any correspondence outside these date will not be counted as objections to the proposal.

Once the Statutory Notice period concludes an Objection report will be presented to the Council’s Cabinet for determination in April 2026 for full implementation from September 2026.

If you have any questions or queries on the information contained within these document, please contact us either by using the email address 21stcenturyschools@blaenau-gwent.gov.uk, or by calling us on (01495) 355116.

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