Decision details

There is a need to reduce the number of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) moving from maintained schools and Academies into costly out of county education provision.  Increasing provision for children and young people with SEND through the creation of up to 11 additional Special Support Centres (SSCs) in maintained schools will assist in the aim of enabling children to attend school locally.

It has been identified that children with Autism and/or Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs are more likely to move into Independent and Non-Maintained Schools (INMS) because it is currently not possible to meet their needs in maintained schools and Academies.  By creating more provision to meet these areas of need the County Council will be able to reduce spending on both expensive placements at INMS and costs associated with transporting children to out-of-county provision.

The first step would be to develop a Full Business Case to support the proposals set out in this report for consideration within the County Council’s Capital Programme governance and for subsequent prioritisation within the Capital Programme.

The Cabinet Member for Education and Skills has approved the proposal to develop a full business case for Phase 1, as detailed in paragraph 2.2 of the report, to be taken through the County Council’s capital governance process, for a scheme to develop additional Special Support Centres attached to maintained schools, in order to educate children with SEND locally in mainstream education and reduce out of county placements.

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