Bradford Council to fund an extra 450 places for SEND children
The number of school aged children in the District with an Education, Health and Care Plan is currently 6,000 – a 50% rise compared to early 2022.
BRADFORD Council bosses are due to approve over £22 million funding to create an extra 450 special educational needs places in the District.
The number of school aged children in the District with an Education, Health and Care Plan is currently 6,000 – a 50 per cent rise compared to early 2022.
At Tuesday’s meeting of Bradford Council’s Executive, members will be asked to provide funding to expand existing special schools and create new SEND places in existing schools to try and tackle a shortfall is spaces which currently stands at around 330.
The places would be created in the next 12 months.
A report to the meeting says efforts to create more SEND spaces were hurt by a Government decision in 2023 that prevented Bradford Council from opening a new special school.
The money will come from the Council’s High Needs Provision Capital Allocations grant funding – cash that the Council receives from the Government for SEND provision.
A report to next week’s Executive says the increase in children with EHCPs is in part down to “a legacy of under-identifying children’s needs” and a change in parental preference – more families now wanting children to be educated in specialist provision rather than mainstream schools.
It adds: “This demand is forecast to continue to increase for the foreseeable future. The additional places will support the Council’s duty of ensuring sufficient places are available across the District for all children who require one.
“Bradford, like many local authorities, is struggling to meet the needs of a growing number of children with EHCPs or that require additional support. This is creating issues such as overcapacity in schools and classrooms, children travelling long distances for a school place, including out of authority, and increasing numbers being placed in the independent sector due to a shortage of places, which produces greater strain on the High Needs Block within the Dedicated Schools Grant, as the cost of placements in independent provisions is typically significantly higher than state funded school provision.
“Bradford currently has almost 6,000 children and young people with an EHCP across its primary and secondary schools. In comparison, there were 4,637 children recorded with an EHCP at the January 2024 school census, an increase of just over 28 per cent in 18 months. Since January 2022, the number of EHCPs across the District in Reception to year 11 has increased by 50 per cent.”
The report says there is currently a 333-place shortfall in SEND places in the District.
“Having been unsuccessful in securing grant funding to establish a Special Free School during the Department for Education application round in 2022/23, Bradford has found it difficult to meet increasing demand over the last few years, having to be re-active to demand by expanding existing special school estate as well as by creating Resourced Provision places within mainstream schools.”
Schools that are likely to get funding for additional SEND places include Co-Op Delius Special School, High Park Special School and the expansion of a specialist provision at the former Thompson Court care home site.