New SEND school on the cards for Plymouth

Parents are asking for more specialist provision

Plymouth City Council cabinet members will be asked to consider proposals for a new SEND school in the city at their meeting next month.

Council leader Tudor Evans (Lab, Ham) said this week that Plymouth current’s specialist provision “could be better and must be better”.

The city currently has seven special schools and 10 specialist support centres attached to mainstream schools covering a range of needs.

The government is due to release its SEND reform white paper imminently which aims to address funding issues, education, health and care plan (EHCP) delays and improve mainstream school inclusion.

SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) provision in Plymouth was highlighted as having serious weaknesses in 2023 but the latest monitoring shows clear progress across the Local Area Partnership’s work to improve support for children.

Inspectors found that Plymouth City Council, NHS Devon, Livewell Southwest, local schools and the University of Plymouth are working closely together to make services more connected and effective and that this united approach is genuinely improving children’s day-to-day experiences. 

Inspectors recognised a “marked cultural shift” with stronger leadership, clearer governance, exclusions had reduced and families received more support and help whilst waiting for assessments.

The report also acknowledges there are still challenges, including long waits for some specialist services

Speaking a cabinet meeting this week Cllr Evans said there was still a lot of work to do but a lot of progress had been made and “a number of people are telling us we are on the right road”.

“I want us to continue this journey of progress and get ahead of the white paper,” he said.  

“I want us to have a new SEND school in Plymouth.”

He said the theme in the white paper would be focused on integrating more children into mainstream schools but in Plymouth “we see more and more parents wanting more specialist provision and we need to be able to deliver that as well as the mainstream stuff.

“At the next cabinet meeting we will have proposals for new SEND school in city and a location to do that. We have some financial provision to do that.”

“What we have available could be better and must be better ….and bigger.”

Cabinet member for education Cllr Sally Cresswell (Lab, Stoke) said no child was going to have their levels of assistance removed because of the white paper or asked to leave the school they were in.

“It’s about getting everything absolutely right for children,” she said.