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Support for children aged 0-25 with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

SEND Sufficiency Project

BCP Council is committed to ensuring all and young people with Special Educational Needs and DisabilitiesDisabilitiesA physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative effect on an individual’s ability to do normal daily activities. (SEND) have access to appropriate and fulfilling educational placements. To address the current shortfall in places, we are continuing our SEND Sufficiency Project, offering schools and educational establishments the opportunity to create new, much-needed provision.

Progress so far

In 2024, the BCP Council invited bid proposals from local school headteachers to co-locate bespoke specialist provision on mainstream school sites for the 2024/25 academic year to address the short-term need for additional primary places. Working with Commissioning and Procurement teams, expression of interest (Round 1) documentation was sent to all maintained and academy primary phase schools within the BCP area.

Proposals were received from our local school partners and different cohorts of children were grouped according to their needs. In September 2024, bespoke provisions opened in Queens Park Infants Academy, St Clement's & St John's C of E Infant School, and Old Town Infant's School.

Next steps

Following the initial pilot round, we are now launching further pieces of work to create the following types of provision:

Resource bases (mainstream schools):

  • This establishes resource bases integrated into a mainstream school setting.
  • These bases will provide additional targeted, specialist support, enabling children with SEND to thrive while taking part in in mainstream classes.

Satellite sites (mainstream schools):

  • This focuses on creating satellite sites, within mainstream schools, operated and managed by established specialist schools.
  • This approach allows for the expertise of specialist settings to be extended into mainstream schools. The sites will be distinct to the mainstream school setting, having separate entrances, facilities and staffing.

We recognise the challenges faced by schools and are eager to collaborate with you to expand our SEND capacity. We believe your expertise and insights are crucial in developing effective and sustainable solutions.

For both Primary and Secondary Settings:

We encourage all interested Headteachers to consider how your school might contribute to this vital project. Whether you are interested in applying or simply wish to discuss the project further, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Please direct all inquiries to: sendsufficiency@bcpcouncil.gov.uk.  You can complete the expression of interest form

We look forward to working with you to create a more inclusive and supportive educational landscape for all children in BCP.

Quotes

"I am so pleased how happy our child is. He's just so happy that he's now talking and not so angry. We are so thankful to the school and the provision." - Parent

"Our bespoke provision has been so good for the children in it - they have made more progress than we could have ever imagined. It just shows what a difference the right environment makes" - SENDCo

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