Purpose

Agreement to funding of specific Special
Schools Capital Projects

Content

Director for Children and Families Approval is
required to the allocation of funding to individual Capital
Projects

Alternative options considered

Staffordshire County Council (SCC) has
received £28,039,553 High Needs Provision Capital Allocations
(HNPCA) funding covering financial years 2021-25. The capital
funding is to support local authorities to deliver new places and
improve existing provision, within education settings, for children
and young people with special educational needs and disabilities
(SEND). It was greed the funding would be used to:

A. Increase access to mainstream placements for children and young
people with high needs (who might otherwise require more specialist
provision) with the development of resource bases.

B. Increase the local availability of high needs places to help
reduce the requirement for out of area placements/placements at
independent special schools.
C. Approve the Interim Director for Children and Families be given
delegated authority to allocate the funding to the individual
capital projects at educational settings.
These proposals were approved by Cabinet on 19 Oct 2022.

A gap analysis was completed to identify areas of need for children
with SEND. Staffordshire special schools were invited to put
forward proposals to increase special school capacity to meet the
needs analysis and help reduce the requirement for out of area
placements/placements at independent special schools – as set
out in B above.

At this stage the 9 projects below are recommended for agreement
with further projects being explored. Costs stated are estimate
figures following feasibility studies, the fixed price will be
gained when the contractors quote is agreed after any planning
approval. The purpose of this report is to gain agreement to
progress with these projects.