Purpose

The County Council has a statutory duty to
provide sufficient school places for all children who need a place.
The demand for places for children with Special Educational Needs
and Disability (SEND), has been increasing significantly. To
support this increase, the County Council has prioritised creating
additional places through expanding existing Special Support
Centres (SSC) or establishing new SSCs, to support children with
specific needs in a mainstream setting.
 
Buckingham Park Primary is a Primary School in
Shoreham by Sea and, in response to the falling demand for places,
with effect from September 2025 has reduced Published Admission
Numbers (PAN) from 90 to 60 places per year. The School has been identified as a suitable site to
host a new SSC, providing specialist support for initially twelve
children aged 4–11 years of age with social communication
needs/differences. This will prevent the need of costly provision
for these children through independent and non-specialist
schools.
 
The proposal is to refurbish and remodel
existing surplus space within Buckingham Park Primary School to
create the SSC.  Therefore, approval is
sought to allocate capital funding for developing a full design for
the scheme and to enable delivery of the new SSC.

Decision

The Cabinet Member for Children, Young People
and Learning has approved the allocation of £1.56m of SEND
capital grant to fund the design and delivery of a 12 place Special
Support Centre at Buckingham Park Primary School to support
children with social communication needs.