School and local authority details

• Name of local authority making the proposal: Shropshire Council
• Address of local authority: Learning and Skills, The Shirehall, Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, SY2 6LY
• Name of school: Morda Primary School
• Address of school: Morda, Oswestry, SY10 9NR

Timescale

Any comments must be provided by 5pm on 16 July.

Proposal

It's proposed to establish a new eight-place specialist resourced provision for pupils with autistic spectrum conditions and speech, language and communication needs, with effect from September 2024.

Description of proposed prescribed alteration

The provision will be located in refurbished purpose-designed accommodation within the school site. Pupils will be admitted from September 2024. It's not anticipated that the proposal will have any impact on other educational facilities in the local area. The proposal has been made to accommodate demand for resourced provision (RP) places.

Shropshire Council is developing a wide range of specialist provision across the county for children and young people with a range of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). To enable us to continue to meet current and future demand, existing specialist provisions are being expanded/redesignated and new specialist provision, including resourced provisions, are being established. We've invited schools within the county to express an interest in developing proposals to establish provision to meet identified needs across the county.

All pupils accessing a resourced provision place will be on roll of the school and have access to both mainstream provision and the resourced provision, dependent on their individual needs.

This new resourced provision will be part of the school, and operationally led and managed by it.

Department for Education (DfE) guidance on resourced provisions states the following:

• Resourced provisions are where places are reserved at a mainstream school for pupils with a specific type of SEN, taught mainly within mainstream classes, but requiring a base and some specialist facilities around the school.
• Pupils are on the roll of the mainstream school
• Resourced provision schools will receive additional funding from the local authority specifically for the purpose of the provision
• They're usually for pupils with EHC plans but could include pupils with SEN but without an EHC plan
• Children attend the RP facilities for individual support, to learn a specific skill, to receive medical or therapeutic support or to access specialist equipment. The facilities can be in a suite or dispersed throughout the school
• The published admission number for the school will remain the same, but an agreed number of ‘additional places’ will be created, but subject to admission through the education, health and care plan (EHCP) referral process, rather than the school's admission arrangements

The published admission number (PAN) of the school won't increase. The admission of children to the mainstream school will continue be managed by our Admissions Team. There are no changes to the admission arrangements as part of this proposal.

Pupils placed at the resourced provision will have a range of significant learning difficulties, including autism and/or speech, language and communication needs, usually but not limited to those who have an education, health and care plan. The RP will offer an inclusive provision for pupils who require arrangements over and above that which a mainstream school can provide through an EHC plan.

Pupils will be admitted if their EHCP identifies developmental difficulties of a significant to severe nature but are able to integrate and be part of a mainstream school community. These difficulties may be particularly characterised by communication difficulties, which may show themselves in speech and language difficulties as well as in more complex interactions with both adults and peers. There may also be a more fundamental social or cognitive basis to the difficulties.

Objectives of the proposal

When considering any reorganisation or establishment of provision that the LA recognises as reserved for pupils with special educational needs, proposers need to demonstrate how the proposed arrangements are likely to lead to improvements in the standard, quality and/or range of educational provision for those children.

The proposal will build on the good standards for teaching and learning already in place at the school. The development will provide places for children and young people with SEND within the resourced provision. This development won't have any negative impact on other schools, academies and educational institutions in the area.

The proposal will provide:

1. Local mainstream educational provision for pupils requiring specialist support and intervention to meet their special educational needs.
2. Pupils’ appropriately planned learning opportunities and activities to address the defined needs of pupils.
3. Access to learning for those pupils in the target group. This shall include access:

• To the appropriate and relevant national curriculum programmes of study though inclusive 'quality first teaching' for part of the school day, differentiated according to individual needs; and
• To wider opportunities that promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school, eg assemblies and out of school activities.
• To learning and teaching to address identified need as appropriate, eg emotional resilience.
• To provide a wide range of professional support across education, health and social care dependent on individual needs, in order to support pupils and remove barriers to learning.
• To personalise specialist support and appropriate intervention, structured in cycles of 'assess, plan, do, review' and which are overseen by the school special educational needs coordinator (SENCo).

Pathways into the provision

All admissions will be determined by Shropshire Council in accordance with the SEN and Disability Code of Practice. Consultation with the school will be in accordance with these documents before we make a decision about placement. The majority of admissions take place at the start of the academic year. Additional placements may be made throughout the year. We'll remain responsible for holding an overview of pupils placed at the provision.

Effect on other educational institutions in the area

The establishment of the resourced provision base won't create an overall increase in the number of places in the primary sector, but will provide an additional specialist provision for children. The proposed resource base won't replace existing provision but will supplement and improve provision across the county. The addition of the special resource base to the school won't have a direct impact on admissions or provision at other schools within the area, but will have a positive impact in the capacity and quality of outreach support to be offered to other schools.

Consultation

The proposal to establish a new resourced provision will be subject to a full statutory consultation process.

The requisite capital funding has been identified using the additional capital grant allocated by the Department for Education (DfE).

Place funding will be determined as outlined in the high needs operational guidance. Shropshire Council, through the high needs block of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), will provide top-up funding, up to the agreed rate for occupied places.

There is a requirement that the governing body of the school and Shropshire Council will enter into an annual service level agreement in relation to the delivery of the specialist resourced provision.

Long-term value for money will be achieved by pupils having their needs met within appropriate mainstream provision with specialist support rather than in special school provision. This will free special school places for pupils with the highest level of needs and provide the opportunity to place high need pupils within the county, rather than in out of county provision or in the independent sector. Increased capacity for outreach will deliver support for pupils in mainstream settings, leading to fewer pupils being transferred to specialist provisions and improving inclusion opportunities in mainstream schools.

Evidence of demand

Shropshire Council has a statutory duty to constantly review the specialist provision available for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), whilst also ensuring that there are sufficient specialist places available to meet the needs of the growing SEND population.

Shropshire has experienced a significant increase in demand for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision over the last few years. It's projected that demand will continue to grow across all sectors.

We've thus embarked on a SEND transformation programme, and one of the key objectives is to reduce the number of independent and out-of-county placements by expanding in county specialist provision, targeted at the right areas of need in the right location.

Within the Shropshire school population, the January 2024 census showed that 7% of the school population (national average of 4.3%) have an education, health and care plan (EHCP) (2459 pupils) – this number has increased by 26% in the past 18 months.

The increase in the number of EHCPs is mainly in the categories of ASC, SEMH and SLCN, which is in line with national trends. Nationally, the most common primary SEND need is ASC.

We've analysed the current and likely future patterns of demand and mapped these against current provision. This includes the likely pressure for specialist placements for children and young people currently in mainstream schools. This is particularly acute for those with autism spectrum conditions (ASC), social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs, and speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), and especially in the primary sector.

Please click on the ‘How to get involved’ tab to have your say.

Within four weeks from the date of publication of this proposal, any person may make comments on the proposal by sending them to:

• Email: TellUs@shropshire.gov.uk
• Post: Feedback and Insight Team, Shropshire Council, Shirehall, Abbey Foregate Shropshire SY2 6ND