The council has won Government funding of almost £9 million to support the latest phase of a £23 million programme of new facilities for children attending the borough�s special schools.

The investment will allow Paddock School in Priory Lane to open a separate primary department (for children with severe and complex learning difficulties and autistic children with moderate or severe learning difficulties) in new buildings on the current Greenmead site in St Margaret�s Crescent.

The school�s existing accommodation at Priory Lane is overstretched and will now be modernised to cater solely for the secondary age group. It is expected to open in April 2009.

The Greenmead site will become available in April 2008 when that school moves into fully-adapted buildings on the neighbouring Chartfield site. The school here closes in August 2006. The new buildings for Greenmead will provide state of the art facilities for 45 children with physical disabilities or profound and multiple learning difficulties.

The council�s funding bid for the new primary schools was ranked 9th out of 200 from across the country by the Department for Education and Skills. The proposals for new secondary provision were placed 57th in order of priority. Both bids succeeded following intensive activity by council education officials.

Two mainstream schools, The Alton and ADT College, will also get new resource bases as part of a programme aimed at making provision in both the primary and secondary phases more accessible for children with special educational needs.

The council has already agreed funding of £3.5 million to expand Garratt Park School for children with mild and moderate learning difficulties and build a new base for secondary pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties at Linden Lodge School.

The changes will mean that The Vines School (for primary pupils with moderate learning difficulties) will close in August 2007. Children will switch to the new Paddock primary department or to the new resource base at Alton School. Others may move to mainstream schools with support from the council�s specialist teaching service.

Cabinet member for education Malcolm Grimston said:

�I am delighted that ministers have recognised the strength of our case for new investment in our special schools. Local parents can take enormous pride in the determination of the council�s own education officials to present a winning case. The civil servants at the DfES also deserve praise for the flexibility with which they approached some very difficult funding issues.

�When added to the current investment of almost £7 million at two residential special schools � Linden Lodge and Bradstow � this brings the size of the council�s programme to more than £23 million.

�It is hard to think of another council which is developing new provision on this scale. This investment is essential if we are to respond effectively to the needs of many young people with complex needs including an increasing number on the autistic spectrum.

�It will also bring the facilities at Paddock and Greenmead right up to date. In both cases this work is long overdue.�

The education overview and scrutiny committee will consider the DfES response to the funding bid at its meeting on November 15. Following this meeting the council�s executive will be asked to set aside £3.7 million to supplement the DfES cash.


November 17, 2005