Derbyshire council invests over £3m to boost special needs school places after criticism

Derbyshire council has taken a further step forward towards improving its SEND provision with over £3m of approved funding for work at three schools to create more places for special needs’ pupils after facing tough criticism.

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission published a report last month stating the Derbyshire Local Area Partnership – including the Conservative-led county council and the NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board – needs to improve after the report identified ‘widespread and or systemic failings’ in the council’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities provision.

The report called for improvements with the effectiveness of local education, health and care services to identify and meet the needs of SEND children and youngsters.

But following the Labour Government’s announcement last week of £740m of funding to increase the number of SEND places in mainstream English schools, the councils’ Cabinet has also given the go-ahead and confirmed that three Derbyshire schools are to receive a share of more than £3m as part of the council’s wider £11m investment to increase SEND places.

Cllr Alex Dale, Cabinet Member for Education, said: “This is another round of allocations from our £11m plan to increase the number of school places for vulnerable young learners with special educational and complex needs.

“Now they have Cabinet approval we’ll immediately start spending on these projects we’ve developed in partnership with the schools to make sure they make a significant impact on pupils’ early learning.

“Meanwhile, we’re continuing to work closely with mainstream schools to ensure we allocate the remaining funding as soon as we can while also ensuring it’s spent as effectively as possible and where it’s needed.

“We know there’s a lot to do and we need to work at pace to deliver the improvements that are needed, but we’re committed to giving children with SEND the best possible start in life and give them the learning opportunities they and their families need and deserve.”

The Cabinet approved £3,195,777 of SEND capital funding at its meeting on December 5 for projects at Bennerley Fields School, in Ilkeston, including £2.6m, the Holbrook School for Autism, in Belper, including £365,777 and at Stanton Vale Special School, in Long Eaton, including £230,000.

The money will eventually help to fund additional SEND places supporting the council’s duty to provide enough places for SEND children and young people across Derbyshire, particularly pupils who require more complex, alternative provision.

Bennerley Fields School will benefit from a Cabinet approval of £2.6m to create three additional classrooms to accommodate 24 pupils, with a possible expansion to 30 pupils from September 2025.

Belper’s Holbrook School for Autism at the Whitemoor Centre has already had £250,000 approved by the Executive Director for Children’s Services, in June 2021, for the first phase of a project, managed by the Esteem Multi-Academy Trust, for two additional places for pupils with autism spectrum disorder and severe learning difficulties.

This scheme includes adaptations to buildings, outdoor facilities and specialist equipment and phase two will allow EMAT to refurbish and remodel the nearby Whitemoor Centre for additional numbers of SEND pupils.

The council stated that the latest additional interim approved funding of £365,777 for Holbrook School will be used to reimburse EMAT.

And the Cabinet which previously approved £320,000 in July for Stanton Vale Special School to refurbish a wing to create 22 additional places for SEND pupils from September, 2024, with a planned increase to 35 by September, 2025, has now been allocated an additional £230,000 to address an increase in the tender price.

Cllr Dale said the Cabinet’s approved funding allocations are just one part of the work which he says will form the ‘backbone’ of the council’s commitment to achieving its ambition for SEND youngsters.

The latest development follows the council’s announcement of an £11 million budget in July to increase the number of school places for SEND children by around 300 over the next two years, having already worked with special schools to create 200 more places since 2020.

Derbyshire County Council which delivers SEND services in a partnership with the NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board has been addressing criticism that youngsters have been waiting too long for education and assessments, have been missing school and have been waiting for specialist health support amid poor communication with parents.

Although, the National Audit Office has stated in its report that Government steps would not be enough to address many SEND challenges faced by local authorities nationwide and it also stressed the national SEND system is financially ‘unsustainable’, in ‘urgent need of reform’ and is ‘broken’.

Cllr Dale, who is Chair of the f40 national cross-party group of local authorities campaigning for fairer SEND funding, added: “While we welcome this funding and it’s something we’ve been calling for alongside other councils and groups in recent years, it’s just one step in the right direction within a whole system that’s in desperate need of broader reform.

“We’ll wait to see what our allocation is for Derbyshire when the Department for Education confirms it in spring and consider how that could be best spent to support the work we’ve already started to create more suitable places for children with SEND within our mainstream schools.”

The council has also introduced a digital case management system called iDOX to improve efficiency with children’s Education, Health and Care Plan assessments and communication between the council, families, schools, health and other agencies.

This technology is part of a £1m investment the council recently made in its SEND service with a new team set-up, additional staff and SEND officers, an increased number of educational psychologists and new training to handle assessments in record time.

The council’s £11m investment in special school places is part of a wider three-strand project which also includes creating additional places to promote inclusion for children with special needs in mainstream schools, by investing in Enhanced Resource Schools, SEND units and alternative provision outside of schools.

It claims that by working with maintained and academy special schools to increase the number of SEND placements instead of building new special schools the council believes new placements will be better located and more accessible.

The council says it is taking a partnership approach with school leaders to review data and to ensure funding is used effectively and in the right areas.

A further Ofsted and CQC inspection of the council and the NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board’s work will be carried out in the next year-and-a-half while the council continues to compile a priority action plan and the next full re-inspection will be within approximately three years.

The council’s Labour Group Leader Joan Dixon also welcomed the Government’s new £740m investment into SEND provision to create more specialist places in mainstream schools with more classroom adaptations and specialist facilities, but she claims the council is failing residents.

Cllr Dixon said: “The latest Ofsted report into the council’s SEND provision showed ‘widespread and systematic failings’ around the outcomes of some of the most vulnerable children in the region, with families saying they were ‘in crisis’ and feeling their pleas for help were being ignored.”