More school places planned for children with special educational needs

Plans to expand a primary school to provide more places for children with special educational needs (SEN) are set to be approved by Plymouth City Council's cabinet next week.

The Council is recommending the necessary consultation begins to double the amount of SEN places available at Keyham Barton Catholic Primary School based in Keyham.

This will means a support centre for ten children diagnosed with autistic spectrum condition (ASC) will be created by remodelling an existing school building. It will be centrally located with break out spaces and specialist teaching within a mainstream school.

The project will need capital investment to go ahead, which will be provided on loan by the diocese to the parish. The proposed support centre would be a council service but the school would be commissioned to run and manage it.

The number of children in the city being diagnosed with autistic spectrum condition is rising and the proposed refurbishment of facilities at Keyham Barton will ensure Plymouth has enough SEN school places to satisfy demand in the future.

Changes to the Children and Families Bill 2013 are set to reform services for children and young people with Special Educational Needs. The key changes proposed include replacing education statements with new birth to 25 education, health and care plans, offering families personal budgets and improving co-operation between all the services that support children and their families.

It is expected that councils will be required to implement the birth to 25 education, health and care plans, and publish the Local Offer in September 2014.

To make changes to the number of places at a school, a strict process must be followed. The first stage is for either school governors or the council to give parents, school staff and anyone interested the chance to comment on any plans. This stage of the process takes approximately six weeks.

The council must then consider any responses to the consultation and decide whether to go ahead and publish formal proposals in a public notice. Responses as a result of the public notice must then be considered and a final decision made whether to go ahead with the plans. The last stage is to implement those plans.

Councillor Nicky Williams, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said: “The need for more specialist education in the city is growing and we must add to the already very good services offered within mainstream schools, such as Goosewell and Mayflower primaries to manage this future demand.

"I am strongly recommending to approve the start of the consultation process so that we ensure children with additional education needs in Plymouth receive top quality services and are given the best possible start in life.”

Keyham Barton is a natural choice for the expansion given the growing expertise in SEN education within the existing centre. The teacher-in-charge has recently completed the National Award for SENCo accreditation (60 Credits at Masters Level) and the ‘Understanding Autism’ module at Plymouth University. Three other teaching assistants and the parent support advisor are also completing relevant training and development relating to ASC.

The school is a smaller than average sized primary – the planned admission number in reception class is 30 and the total number of pupils forecast for 2014 is 208. The school’s latest Ofsted report in February 2012 was ‘good’ following significant improvements.