Mainstream schools offer up to 500 places for special needs pupils in BCP Council area
UP to 500 places for pupils with special educational needs could be found in mainstream schools throughout Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.
The places have been identified after BCP Council wrote to all the schools in the area to see what they could offer, writes Trevor Bevins of the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Like other areas BCP has been unable to find school places for all its children with special educational or physical needs within the area, with some being educated away from home or with specialist operators.
Somerford Primary School and Winchelsea Special School are likely to be among the early projects although both of these schemes are waiting to see if they will qualify for additional government funding under the Department of Education’s Schools Rebuilding Programme.
Tanya Smith, head of the service for school place planning, told BCP councillors there have been 34 expressions of interest from 16 education trusts locally which could translate into 300-500 places.
Around £10m in grants is expected to be available to help develop a range of schemes.
She told BCP Council's children’s services overview and scrutiny committee that many of the offers were still being evaluated with a priority for those pupils with speech and language communication challenges and social, emotional and mental health needs.
The area is also trying to cope with an increase in pupils with additional needs – up by 90 new applications in the lower age groups in just a year.
Some of them are accounted for by movements into the area by refugees, but also from people coming to the area for jobs or to study at Bournemouth University,
Ms Smith said: “The schools will have to demonstrate that they have the level of expertise necessary to deliver what they are putting forward in their proposals and a whole range of other criteria which will tell use that they have the capacity to deliver what they are proposing, that they have thought about the curriculum and that their leadership and management is sound and their Ofsted judgement support what they are proposing to do – and, of course, that it is sustainable."
The committee heard that 21 of the 34 proposals were considered worth developing in more detail which could provide just under 400 places, some of which could be delivered in the 2022/23 financial year.
Ms Smith said some of the schemes were likely to take longer than hoped, often because much of the building work could only be undertaken during school holidays.
Tranche 1 schemes already under way include Broadstone First School, Broadstone Middle, Throop Learning Centre and Linwood School which between them will offer up to 40 places at an estimated combined cost of £800,000.
The meeting heard that local provision often resulted in savings of £20,000 per pupil.
