Friday 15 November to Friday 13 December 2019. This consultation is closed and the results are available to view.
The original consultation closed on 27 April 2018.
Improving facilities for children with SEND
We applied for funding from the government's Special Provision Capital Fund to improve the quality of educational facilities for children and young people with education, health and care plans (EHCP) for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and carried out an initial consultation to decide priorities for the funding available in spring 2018.
There was a further small funding amount available and we asked for your feedback on our decision to allocate this to the same project.
Please see the results and outcomes from both consultations below which record your responses to the funding decisions we made.
If you have any questions or would like any further information about this project please contact Susan.Woodrow@herefordshire.gov.uk
Outcome and responses from 2019 consultation
As a result of a second period of consultation on the intention of Herefordshire Council Children and Families directorate to use the government special provision fund (SPF) grant to implement capital improvements at the Brookfield Special School, the directorate has noted the recent responses (see below), which indicate no material difference in consultee views compared to the original consultation. A record of officer decision will now be published confirming the intention to use the SPF grant to proceed with plans to improve the site and buildings of the Brookfield Special School.
Note - The proposals to improve the Brookfield Special School form part of an overall SEND capital strategy to look at future planned improvements to the whole SEND estate. In addition, health and safety concerns in all maintained schools will always be responded to on the basis of need, by allocating funding from the schools government annual maintenance grant.
Responses
"We strongly agree with the development of Brookfield School to improve the learning environment and provision for students with EHCPs."
"During the meeting of the Capital consultative group I enquired as to whether the DfE could pick up some of this cost, due to Brookfield being an academy. My governors are concerned about the recent identification of significant H+S concerns at our school, and whether a proportion of the additional funds could be put towards this, since it was flagged as extremely unsafe. I am aware that there is not much money to go around, but an increase of 70% to an existing figure of £500,000 does not appear equitable based on recent special school spends."
Consultation spring 2018
We met with schools to discuss where and how best to invest Herefordshire's allocation from the fund to improve SEND provision and the projects we listed in our initial DfE template were the outcome of these discussions.
We then asked parents and carers of children and young people with SEND and other stakeholders for views on our proposed projects.
Responses and outcomes from 2018 consultation
Summary of responses to consultation - May 2018
We used the results and feedback from this consultation to decide priorities and which project will benefit from this fund. Brookfield Special School for children and young people with social, emotional and mental health needs was selected. The governance documents are:
- Cabinet paper for special provision capital funds for SEND March 2018
- Record of officer decision on allocation of special provision capital funds for SEND August 2018
The template below shows our proposed plans for using the £500k indicative share of the fund that is available for Herefordshire. We can spend it on capital investments to improve facilities which will benefit any children between the ages of two and 25 with EHC plans.