Councillors decide on Wednesday whether Meridian Trust gets the old St Joseph's building in Queens Park, plus £2.5m, to open Bedford's first SEMH school.
Bedford Borough has no special school for children with social, emotional and mental health needs. A decision on Wednesday is meant to change that. The council’s Executive will be asked to hand the empty St Joseph’s Lower School building in Queens Park to Meridian Trust, along with £2.5 million to refurbish it, so the trust can open an 80-place SEMH special school.
The meeting is at 2.30pm on Wednesday 14 October at Borough Hall. The report to the Executive says children who need this kind of school now travel out of the borough for it. Many go to independent special schools that are “often 2 or 3 times more expensive” than state-funded ones, before the cost of transport.
What the Executive is asked to agree
The report recommends that the Executive:
- lets the St Joseph’s building to Meridian Trust on a 125-year lease, with the council keeping the freehold
- releases a £2.5m capital grant for the works, paid in stages against evidenced spending, plus pre-opening costs
- notes that the council’s total commitment is £4.3m: £1.8m already spent buying the building and the £2.5m grant
- delegates the final lease and grant terms to the director for children, education and families
All of it depends on the Secretary of State approving Meridian Trust as the school’s operator. The council sent its recommendation to the Department for Education on 18 September. The report says it “strongly” expects approval and expects the decision “imminently”.
The money comes from the borough’s High Needs Capital Allocation, a government grant for special needs places. The report says no borrowing is needed and there is no call on the council’s general budget.
The cost has gone up by £500,000
The council approved buying the building, and a budget of £3.8m, in December 2025. The total is now £4.3m. The report says the original £2m for the works “would not have been enough”. The works grant is now £2.5m, and the trust, not the council, would carry any overspend above it.
The trust will also run the building work itself. The council’s School Places Board judged that cheaper and less risky than a council-led build. The report cites “lessons learnt from the Rivertree scheme”, where it says the trust running that school made last-minute changes to the specification.
The council expects the school to save money. The report puts the saving to the high needs budget at £6,686,836 over three years, with more than £1m saved on home to school transport over the same period. On those figures the £4.3m pays for itself in about two years.
Who the school is for
The specification the council published for bidders sets out the plan:
- 80 places for boys and girls in years 5 to 11, aged 9 to 16
- pupils with an education, health and care plan (EHCP) where SEMH is the primary need
- the former St Joseph’s Lower School on Chester Road, Queens Park, MK40 4HN
- a phased opening: 20 pupils in the first spring term, 60 in 2027/28 and 80 in 2028/29
The specification said the school would open in the spring term of 2027, “should all necessary works be completed on schedule”. The report to Wednesday’s meeting does not repeat a date.
The need is not in doubt in the council’s papers. The specification says 2,418 children and young people in the borough have an EHCP. Of those, 409 (17%) have SEMH as their primary need, and 209 of them are in years 5 to 11, the age range the school would take. Thirty-two have EHCPs naming a placement outside the borough. Department for Education figures, quoted in the report, show a 133% rise between 2015/16 and 2024/25 in Bedford children with EHCPs for SEMH.
Why St Joseph’s is empty
St Joseph’s and St Gregory’s was a Catholic primary school split across two sites, one in Queens Park and one in Biddenham. The report says the school moved onto the Biddenham site, renamed St Francis of Assisi Catholic Primary School, in September 2025. That left the Queens Park building vacant.
The trust that would run it
Meridian Trust runs 36 schools, five of them in Bedford Borough, according to the report. It already runs three special schools, two of them for SEMH. The report says all its Bedford schools are rated Good or equivalent, and that it recently expanded Lincroft Academy in Oakley on the council’s behalf.
The trust was picked through a free school competition. Bids were invited in July and August 2026 and assessed by a panel that included the Bedford Borough Parent Carer Forum.
What the ward councillors said
Queens Park’s two councillors, Cllr Akhtar and Cllr Masud, back the school. In the report, they say they “strongly support the creation of local SEMH provision”. They also ask for “continued attention” to “community engagement, traffic and parking impacts”, and for residents to get updates as the project goes on.
What it means for you
If your child has an EHCP for SEMH needs and travels out of the borough to school, this is the first local special school of its kind. Places at special schools are allocated through the EHCP process, not normal admissions, so the route in is a review of your child’s plan with the council’s SEND team once the school is confirmed.
If you live near Chester Road, the ward councillors have asked for traffic and parking to be looked at. The timetable for the building work has not been published.
The council ran an informal consultation from 18 May to 14 June 2026. Its equality analysis says 96% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that more SEMH places are needed.
The meeting is open to the public and webcast. The agenda and every report are on the council’s committee site. The same meeting also considers the council’s updated Medium Term Financial Strategy and its savings plan. We will report the decision.
More on schools in the borough is in our Bedford school term dates page.
Sources: Bedford Borough Council, Executive 14 October 2026, agenda item 7, report on the transfer of St Joseph’s building; Bedford SEMH special free school specification; equality analysis report, SEMH special school.
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