Expanding SEND Provision in Mainstream Schools

Overview

Stockport is proud of the quality of education provided by its diverse and high-performing system of schools, colleges, and early years’ settings. Stockport is committed to ensuring its residents have access to good local schools which offer a rich and varied learning experience.

Stockport faces significant challenges in the future due to a growing population (caused by increased housing development and inward migration), condition issues within the school estate, and in line with other local authorities nationally, a growing cohort of children with specialised and complex needs.

Funding for capital investment to maintain and grow the school estate remains constrained by the priorities and focus of Government and as such relies on the Council to better seek value and/or economies of scale where possible. Funding pressures means greater focus to maximise the benefits from our investment plans. This includes social value, recognising the importance of social, environmental and economic well-being across our communities by developing our educational establishments.

The Council has an enduring statutory responsibility to commission sufficient high quality school places. This means having the right number and type of school places, in the right place, at the right time to meet demand.

This document sets out how we plan to carry out our responsibility in respect of the creation of new mainstream provision targeted to meet the needs of children with special education needs or disability (SEND), in line with the commitments made in the One Stockport Borough Plan to ensure there are sufficient places in good and improving local inclusive schools at the heart of the community that children and families want to go to.

Why your views matter

Responses to this consultation will be used to inform a final decision by the Council's Place Planning Board about whether or not to publish statutory proposals to create new SEND provision in certain mainstream schools.

What happens next

This pre-publication consultation will inform the publication of a statutory proposal and a subsequent consultation will launch seeking views specifically on those proposals.

The creation of new SEND provision at a maintained community school is considered a prescribed alteration and is subject to a statutory change process.

The process that must be followed is as follows:

The Council's Place Planning Board are expected to make a decision about whether or not to proceed to Stage 1 of the statutory process outline above on 31 August 2022.