Warwickshire County Council’s cabinet today approved allocating an additional £572,666 to its schools capital programme to create a specialist resourced provision for pupils with communication ....
Warwickshire County Council’s cabinet today approved allocating an additional £572,666 to its schools capital programme to create a specialist resourced provision for pupils with communication and interaction needs and social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) difficulties.
The proposed provision, at Henley CE Primary School, will accommodate up to 14 primary age pupils with Education Health Care Plans (EHCPs). It will enable children with SEMH to be based at a mainstream setting where they would have a bespoke plan of education, with plans to introduce them into the wider school over time with lower levels of support wherever possible.
There are currently eight resourced provisions attached to mainstream primary schools across Warwickshire which allow pupils with SEMH to access a mainstream curriculum in a mainstream school setting.
The scheme will be met by external money, through the Government’s Specialist Provision Fund, which will be added to the county council’s Education Capital Fund. This means that the adaptations to the school would not have any additional financial implications for the county council.
Planning permission would be sought for a stand-alone single-storey unit which would create two teaching areas, a group room, three rooms for therapeutic use, a social area and an external area for play.
This would replace a temporary classroom which has exceeded its anticipated lifespan. Admissions would be through the county council’s usual process for specialist provision.
Before it can then be built, Henley CE Primary School, which is an academy, would seek permission from the Regional Schools Commissioner. Any additional facility on the site would not affect the school’s current published admissions number of 30 for each year.
Specialist provision is an integral part of the county council’s local offer for young people with SEND. By providing this on the site of a mainstream setting, it offers advantages for the young people who can attend a local mainstream school, freeing up spaces at dedicated specialist provision settings in Warwickshire. Increasing capacity at these settings will also reduce the need to send young people out of the county.
Cllr Colin Hayfield, portfolio holder for education and learning, said: “This will be a really significant step in the Send and Inclusion Change Programme. It will enable young people to access their education in a mainstream local setting which is a better outcome for them and something that they and their families have identified that they wanted.
“For us, this is a win-win approach as we can make a bespoke education offer to the young people and give access to the mainstream setting which is our ambition.
“Increasing use of mainstream settings wherever possible will help us to make our resources go further and mean that we can limit the amount of young people in specialist settings or out of county settings.
“This does reduce costs, and that is brilliant, but more importantly it is the way forward in offering an improved education offer in a local setting that will bring the best outcome for the young people in question.”