Cabinet backs plan to refurbish Croes Atti for pupils with additional needs
Flintshire’s Cabinet has approved plans to bring the closed Ysgol Croes Atti building in Flint back into use as a specialist centre for around 80 children with additional learning needs.
Cabinet members voted on Tuesday to enter a construction contract to refurbish the former Welsh-medium primary, which children left when they moved into a new Ysgol Croes Atti building elsewhere in the town.
The centre will run under Plas Derwen pupil referral unit, roughly doubling its capacity, and is expected to open in 2027/28.
The refurbishment of Croes Atti carries an estimated build cost of around £5m.
Once the cost of borrowing over 50 years is added, the council’s medium-term financial strategy puts the full lifetime cost of that building at £14.6m, repaid at an average of £263,000 a year.
The Flint centre is one part of the first phase of a wider expansion of specialist provision.
Council papers put the total cost of Phase 1 at £86.5m over 50 years, a figure that covers building work, staffing and transport across the sites involved, not just the Flint refurbishment.
Councillor Richard Jones raised the figure during the meeting, noting that one child in an out-of-county placement at £90,000 a year would, over 50 years, cost the equivalent of supporting 20 children locally. Officers agreed the maths.
The driver is cost as much as demand. Flintshire’s spending on out-of-county additional learning needs placements now stands at £26m a year, which the council says is unsustainable.
Individual day placements run from £55,000 to £96,000 per child each year, and the out-of-county budget overspent by £1.4m in 2025/26. Ysgol Pen Coch, the council’s primary specialist school in Flint, has children on a waiting list for places.
Claire Homard, the council’s chief officer for education and youth, told Cabinet the building would let the council keep children closer to home.
She said: “By increasing our local provision within Flintshire, we are able to keep our learners closer to home, which is obviously better for their wellbeing. It will make a far more financially efficient model for the council.”
Jeanette Rock, the council’s senior manager for inclusion and provision, said the building could be adapted to suit a range of needs.
She said: “We can create a really flexible learning environment that is adaptable to a range of needs. That is one of the beauties of having our own in-house provision, that we can tailor it to the needs of our pupils.”
Councillor Glyn Banks described the reuse of the building as a form of recycling.
He said: “We’ve built a magnificent new Croes Atti in Flint. Now the refurbishment of this site will allow Flintshire learners to be in Flintshire, as opposed to having to go outside.”
Councillor Christine Jones declared a personal and prejudicial interest in the item, telling the meeting a family member might need to use the services, and left the room for the debate.
The refurbishment still needs planning permission, and the council will consult on the proposals through the planning application process.
A modular learner support hub at Ysgol Treffynnon in Holywell, costed at around £1.5m, was approved alongside the Flint scheme and is funded through an existing additional learning needs capital grant.
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