Proposal to develop a SEN Unit at Ashton Community Science College

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Purpose	We are seeking your views about a proposal to create a special educational needs (SEN) unit at Ashton Community Science College. This formal consultation is a legal requirement that we need to do in order to make a change like this to the school.| What are we planning to do? The proposal is to create an SEN unit for between eight and sixteen children and young people with social communication and interaction needs in Ashton Community Science College. All of these children and young people will have education, health and care plans. Some of these children and young people will transfer from another school to Ashton Community Science College so that they can attend the SEN unit. Children and young people attending the SEN unit will be taught in the unit for some of the time and at other times they will be taught with other children and young people in existing classes. All children and young people already on roll at Ashton Community Science College will still be able to attend the school and this change should not affect current admission criteria. Why are we doing this? - Special schools in Lancashire are largely full. In 2019 over 350 pupils with special educational needs attended private or independent schools. These school places usually cost more than places in Lancashire schools. - To make sure that children and young people in Lancashire have the same chance to attend an SEN unit as they do in other parts of the country. There are 300 fewer SEN unit places in Lancashire compared with other local authorities in England if they were the same size. - To give families more choice about the type of school they would like their child to attend. - To make sure there is specialist support and enough special school places for all children and young people with special educational needs. - As there is evidence to show the specialist knowledge of staff working with children and young people in an SEN unit leads to better quality of teaching for all pupils throughout the school - Because there is a particular need for SEN units in the Preston/Leyland area How will we do this? - By making sure the needs of every child and young person in the school are met, whether or not they have special educational needs. - By making sure that all staff have the training they need to support the children and young people whether they are in the SEN unit or attending mainstream lessons - By providing funding for any adaptations to the school building through the basic needs grant provided by the local authority. - The school will receive additional funding from the high needs block to provide support for all pupils attending the unit, in line with the funding for places at specialist schools. This means the school should not be financially disadvantaged by the creation of the unit.
Subject	Schools (nursery, primary, secondary, special)
Commissioned by	Inclusion Service

Geographic area	Preston
Method	Questionnaire - online
Consultation with	Schools/parents/governors
Date	11/06/2021 - 09/07/2021
Undertaken by	Business Intelligence

Contact information

For more information about this research contact:

Inclusion Service 01772 531597
Email: Inclusion.South@Lancashire.gov.uk