Barnet Special Educational Places Plan consultation

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This consultation has closed.

Proposal for additional Special Educational Needs provision in Barnet

Have your say on developing more specialist provision in Barnet for children and young people with complex special educational needs.

All local authorities have to regularly review and update their plans about their special educational needs provision. This is to ensure that there is enough of the right type of provision to meet current and future needs, keeping track of the needs of children with special educational needs coming through the education system.

Following an updated needs analysis, the council is consulting on proposals to develop additional specialist provision in Barnet

Proposal for additional Special Educational Needs provision in Barnet

Have your say on developing more specialist provision in Barnet for children and young people with complex special educational needs.

All local authorities have to regularly review and update their plans about their special educational needs provision. This is to ensure that there is enough of the right type of provision to meet current and future needs, keeping track of the needs of children with special educational needs coming through the education system.

Following an updated needs analysis, the council is consulting on proposals to develop additional specialist provision in Barnet for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). Ensuring that there is sufficient specialist provision in Barnet will enable children and young people with SEND to achieve the best educational outcomes as a result of accessing provision and support appropriate to their needs

 

What we are consulting on

We are seeking views on our proposals for additional specialist provision for children and young people in Barnet who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) for their complex special educational needs.

The Barnet SEN Special Places Plan Consultation Document sets out the information that we are using to inform the consultation proposals. In particular, the document aims to:

  • describe the gaps we have in our special educational needs provision in Barnet
  • present information on the type of provision we need in Barnet
  • show how we are proposing to use the capital allocation from the Special Provision Fund (this is a capital grant allocated to Barnet by the Department for Education to support the development of specialist provision for children and young people with special educational needs).


What we are proposing

Our proposals include expanding our current provision, as well as opening new provision in September 2022, as outlined below:

  • Expansion of existing provision at Oakleigh and Oak Lodge special schools (or annexes developed in 2021) and at Kisharon special school
  • Increasing the number of placements at the purpose built Additional Resource Provision (ARP) at Whitefields secondary school
  • Opening a new Secondary ARP for Cognition and Learning needs in 2022 with 8 places, rising to 24 places by 2024
  • Opening a new annex to an existing Special School with provision for pupils aged from 5 to 18 with complex special educational needs, including learning needs, Autism and associated social, emotional and mental health needs. This will be for 39 places from September 2022, rising to 71 places in September 2023
  • Opening a new Additional Resource Provision (ARP) for Cognition and Learning needs in a mainstream primary school in 2023 – 12 places in 2023 rising to 24 in 2024
  • For young people aged 19 to 25 years with SEND, we are proposing the expansion of Further education mainstream places, the expansion of the specialist Learning Difficulties provision at Barnet and Southgate College.

In addition, we are also proposing to increase the number of post-16 places at Oak Lodge special school.

There is growth in the number of Supported Internships available for young people with SEND. These will be increased by 10 places in 2022, rising by a further 55 additional places by 2024.


Your views are important to us

The consultation is open to all residents in Barnet, and we are keen to hear from parent carers of children and young people who have an EHCP, and other partners including schools and education settings in Barnet, and statutory and voluntary services who support children and young people in Barnet with special educational needs.


How to have your say

Please take the time to read our consultation document and then complete our online questionnaire.

For any further information, or to request the questionnaire in an alternative format, please email E&S.Support@Barnet.gov.uk, or telephone 020 8359 7288. Alternatively, you can write to us at:

SEN Department, Floor 2, 2 Bristol Avenue, Colindale, London NW9 4EW and mark it 'SEND Consultation'.

This consultation has closed.

  • We asked, you said, we did

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    We asked

    We asked for your views on the Barnet Special Educational Needs Places Plan 2021/22.

    We asked you to comment on the proposal to maintain the same balance of provision for children and young people with special educational needs with Education, Health and Care Plans across mainstream schools, Additional Resource Provisions (ARPs) and Special Schools?

    You said

    We received 48 responses to the online questionnaire.

    • 58% agreed that we should maintain the same balance of provision across mainstream schools, ARPs and special schools.
    • 98% agreed with the proposal to offer more high-quality specialist places (ARPs and special school places) locally in Barnet.
    • 78% agreed with our proposals to deliver extra specialist SEN places in Barnet.
    • 88% agreed with our proposals for allocating the Special Provision Fund to the projects outlined in the Plan.

    Responses were provided with the following issues noted:

    • acknowledged the increase in the numbers of children with SEND
    • acknowledged that parental preference should guide provision
    • acknowledged the need for additional specialist places in Barnet
    • acknowledged the need for specialist provision to be developed in Barnet to enable children to attend school locally in their own area
    • acknowledged the need for additional provision for secondary aged pupils
    • acknowledged the need for greater choice of specialist provision
    • acknowledged the need for additional provision for children with Autism
    • concern that the need for provision for children with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs is being overlooked.
    • concern that the provision being proposed is not evenly spread across the borough which will impact on transport.

    We did

    We expanded Northway School on 6 September 2022 to reassure them that the building works were completed, and the school was fully operational for the start of term.

    We opened an ARP provision at Friern Barnet School for secondary aged children with Learning and Cognition Needs. The first cohort of children were admitted into Year 7 in September 2022. Cohorts will be introduced at the start of each new academic year until 2026 when the ARP will be able to take its full capacity.

    The Windmill School is planned to open in academic year 2023/24. This is a special school which will meet the needs of children with Autism who are unable to access a mainstream school environment even with an ARP provision but do not require a special school placement for significant learning and cognition needs associated with their autism.