Councillor Calls for Greater SEND provision in Scarborough Schools

North Yorkshire Council has been urged to increase special education needs capacity at schools in Scarborough.

A lack of space and capacity for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Scarborough should be addressed by North Yorkshire Council, according to members of the Scarborough and Whitby area committee.

Speaking at a meeting of the committee last week, Coun John Ritchie said: 

“There are still no primary schools in Scarborough with targeted mainstream provision (TMP) and I speak as a governor of three schools so I’m aware of the enormous pressures on the system.

“The long and short of it is that we need more capacity in Scarborough, we need a new special school, and hopefully when we get the move from Scalby School up to the new site at the former Raincliffe School, we’ll be able to see some movement in converting what’s left of that former Raincliffe building so it can be utilised by young people who need this support.”

He added: 

“I think we need a new building.”

A report prepared for the meeting by officers noted that providing appropriate provision to children and young people with SEND had become an area of “increasing pressure on resources in local authorities throughout the country”.

North Yorkshire Council has said that it continues to maintain a focus on working with mainstream schools to strengthen the offer for children with SEN “so the vast majority can be educated within their local communities”.

The report also highlighted that the council had agreed to a £20.5m capital programme to develop more specialist places for children across the county.

It said: 

“This includes developing targeted mainstream provision as well as increasing Special School places and in the Scarborough and Whitby Committee area there are capital schemes underway which will further enhance the offer to children in the area.”

The Woodlands Academy is currently being rebuilt with funding from the Department for Education (DfE) and “dialogue between the council and schools to further increase the number of TMPs continues within the committee area”.

Coun Ritchie, who represents the Woodlands division, said: 

“I’d be interested to know about targeted mainstream support which is where I think most people are coming from [because] we want to see young people with disabilities integrated into mainstream schools if at all possible.

“The problem in Scarborough is that there is absolutely no capacity in our schools. We’ve heard for the past 18 months to two years that there are discussions taking place with schools in Scarborough but we’ve seen no progress.”

A council officer who attended the meeting to provide further information about schools in the area said: 

“I’m aware that there continue to be conversations with schools that have expressed an interest in establishing or exploring establishing a TMP in their school.

“Whilst I’m aware that that might not have translated into established TMPs in Scarborough primary schools, I believe there are more discussions than there have been previously.”

Responding to Coun Ritchie, the officer said that the council had been part of a DfE-funded programme called ‘delivering better value in SEND’ and noted that 

“anecdotal feedback from schools is that they are finding the framework beneficial to help children remain in a mainstream setting”.

“That’s something we are now considering the outcome of and we’ll continue to make sure that it becomes embedded in the practice of supporting schools to ensure children can be supported in the mainstream setting,”