£40m plan for new Send schools set to move forward

7 hours ago

Paul MoseleyNorfolk political reporter

News image — Plans for new Send schools in Downham Market and Great Yarmouth were first drawn up in 2023

Getty Images Children in a classroom, with their backs to the camera. They are sitting at desks with pencils, seeming to write on paper in front of them. — Plans for new Send schools in Downham Market and Great Yarmouth were first drawn up in 2023

Plans for two special schools will finally move ahead with £40m of funding from the government, a council has said.

Norfolk County Council first announced plans for the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) schools in Downham Market and Great Yarmouth in 2023.

The previous Conservative government had promised money for them, but plans were put on hold when the 2024 General Election was called.

Penny Carpenter, the Conservative councillor responsible for children's services, said the Department for Education (DfE) had now confirmed the funding, and she hoped proposals would move forward in the coming weeks.

Paul Moseley/BBC Penny Carpenter is sitting in a room with a glass wall. She is wearing a red jacket and she has a small poppy pin badge on. — Councillor Penny Carpenter said there had been "a strong case" to fund the schools

Under the plans, the Great Yarmouth school will support 170 children with learning disabilities, while the Downham Market school will cater for 100 pupils with complex communication and interaction difficulties.

Norfolk County Council had been given the option to proceed with the schools – which will cost in the region of £40m – or take a lower sum of £13.7m from the government to fund specialist places in existing mainstream schools.

Carpenter said she was "delighted" the DfE had agreed to provide £40m.

While the council's overall approach is for more Send children to be supported in mainstream education, she said the new schools would make "a huge difference".

"I do recognise that some children really do need that extra special help in learning and they will only perhaps get that extra special help within a specialist school," she added.

South West Norfolk MP Terry Jermy, Labour, who had been campaigning for the Downham Market school to be built, also welcomed the news.

Describing the Send system as being "in crisis", he said he was working with more than 150 families who faced "huge challenges".

Hannah Tabram Hannah Tabram is sitting at a restaurant/pub table. She is wearing a greenish-brown shirt and looking directly at the camera. — Hannah Tabram compared trying to find a specialist school place to climbing "a really steep cliff"

Hannah Tabram, from Kenninghall, one of the parents supported by Jermy, said there was a need for more special schools.

With her 10-year-old son – who has additional needs – due to move into secondary education soon, she said she was struggling to find a suitable specialist place for him.

"As a parent it feels like you're standing at the bottom of a really steep cliff looking up, thinking 'I've got to climb up that,'" she explained.

"Every school you look at is going to be so oversubscribed… the demand for places is huge. Anything that can ease that would be great."

The council said - if the plans go ahead - the Downham Market school would be located in the town high school's former sixth form building at Ryston End.

Meanwhile, the Great Yarmouth school would be at a site in North Denes.

Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.