Options to create more SEND school places

Wokingham Borough Council has taken its next steps to ensuring the area has enough special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) school places.

A new SEND Sufficiency Statement is being put before councillors at Wokingham Borough Council’s executive next week.

It outlines the forecasted numbers of places needed for the next five years for the borough’s residents and options to provide the required capacity as quickly as possible.

Funding needs to be found if the places are to be created, which is the next step if councillors agree to progress the sufficiency statement. 

The options paper identifies that at this stage it would need £15.2million to be invested. This will be considered as part of future medium-term financial planning, subject to detailed business cases and further assessment of costs.

If able to provide extra places, pupils with SEND would be provided with access to education provision in their local communities, as well as reduce journey times for students and their families. 

In the long term it is anticipated that creating extra SEND school places would contain future costs by £8.9million, predominantly within the Dedicated Schools Grant. 

Options based on resident feedback

The sufficiency statement includes proposals for new facilities, particularly for post-16, as well as new provision within mainstream schools, thanks to feedback from parents and carers and children with SEND from Wokingham, which showed a clear preference for developing such provision. This includes:

• SEND units - where students get specialist education within a mainstream school, attending some mainstream lessons for enrichment where appropriate
• SEND resource bases – where most teaching and learning happens in mainstream classes with mainstream teachers, with support coming from specialist staff where appropriate 

Usually each unit or resource base focuses on a particular type of provision, catering to specific needs of students.

Options outlined in the statement would create more than 200 new SEND places locally, including:

• Two 21-place primary school Autism provisions
• One 21-place primary school cognition and learning provision
• One eight-place primary school social, emotional and mental health provision
• One 21-place secondary Autism provision
• One 21-place secondary school cognition and learning provision
• Two 15-place secondary school social, emotional and mental health provision
• One post-16 SEND vocational centre with 40 places
• One specialist post-16 education provision with 40 places
• Expansion of existing early years provision

The locations of the new provisions within mainstream schools are subject to discussions with local schools and academy trusts. 

Already planned extra capacity

This would be on top of the already-planned extra capacity for the borough, coming through:

• Two new free schools at Rooks Nest Farm in Barkham/Finchampstead - Rooks Nest School (social, emotional and mental health provision) and Strawberry Fields School (broad spectrum provision) opened from 2028 with 240 places across both schools for children and young people aged four to 19 (subject to Department for Education construction)
• New post-16 SEND Hub at former Wokingham Library
• New post-16 sixth form with 10 SEND places
• One primary school resource base for autism provision
• One primary school unit for autism provision
• One primary school resource base for social, emotional and mental health provision
• One primary school unit for social, emotional and mental health provision
• One secondary school unit for communication and interaction/autism provision
• One secondary school resource base for hearing impairment provision
• One secondary school unit for social, emotional and mental health provision
• Early Years specialist providers – being led by council teams with existing providers

Cllr Prue Bray, deputy leader and executive member for children’s services, said: “The need for more SEND places in the borough is well documented and we now have options to reduce this in the years ahead.

“SEND pupils want and should be educated close to home, to benefit them and their families, as well as helping us reduce costs on their transport. 

“Pupils should get the right education for their needs to set them up for a happy and health life, which this sufficiency statement sets out to provide once funding has been found.

“The council remains in a challenging financial situation and the next steps, if this is agreed, will be working out how we may be able to fund these projects.” 

Working together to create better outcomes

The statements shows some shortfall in places in the years ahead while finding funding, planning and construction would take place. Students across the borough will continue be supported by the council to find an appropriate school place for their needs. 

The recommendations of the statement follow extensive engagement with parents and carers last year, coordinated by advocacy group SEND Voices.

A common theme of the feedback from these sessions was that there was a clear wish to see expansion of specialist provision in mainstream schools.

Parents reported viewing such provision as being an important element of promoting the inclusion agenda and enabling children with EHCPs to participate and grow networks within their local communities

Parents and carers have expressed their desire for a better geographical spread of options and a greater range of categories of need in met through mainstream school

Cllr Bray added: “Parents and carers made it clear to us they felt the need for their children was within the borough’s mainstream schools. We’re working hard to meet their desires, and the needs of the borough’s young people, by creating extra places.

“If the sufficiency statement is agreed we’ll begin working with the Department for Education, local trusts and other partners to provide these places as quickly as we can, subject to funding being found.”

Watch the decision

Numbers in the plan are based on forecasted student numbers, which factors in birth rates, housing development, migration rates and EHCP types.

The statement complements the council’s School Places Strategy for 2024 to 2029, which outlines the needs for places in our mainstream schools.

Councillors will meet at 7pm on Thursday 29 May to discuss the plan, residents can view the meeting on the council’s YouTube channel.

Wokingham Borough Council, like councils across the country, continues to face a difficult financial situation.

Due to increasing pressures in adults and children’s services for our most vulnerable residents, like SEND students, consistently low government funding and ongoing impacts of high inflation, costs of running the council continue to rise.