Proposals that will further transform special education teaching and learning in Manchester and give more choice and better outcomes for young people have been agreed by the Council's Executive earlier this week.
The city wide proposals will see a continuum of provision developed for children and young people who have special educational needs from pre-school through to school leaving age and beyond.
The £28 million package of proposals includes early assessment through designated Sure Start centres and associated early years providers, and specially resourced provision at six mainstream primary schools and three mainstream high schools.
The proposals build on developments already underway across the city through Building Schools for the Future (BSF) to co-locate special schools alongside mainstream schools.
Other key parts of the package include the relocation of the existing Grange School that provides for pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) from Rusholme to brand new purpose built premises on the former site of Cedar Mount High School in Gorton.
Pupil numbers will be increased from 70 to 150 and the school will also incorporate the Horizon provision for higher ability pupils with ASD. The new school will also for the first time provide additional short break day facilities and residential facilities able to cater for up to ten children and young people out of school hours, at weekends, and during school holidays.
The proposals will also see substantial capital investment of around £2.2 million in Lancasterian School in West Didsbury. Current provision at the school will be developed to become a 75 place specialist support school for Physical Disabilities and Communication and Interaction. This builds on the school's existing expertise and recent specialist designation for communication and interaction.
From September 2012 the school will work towards providing between 50 and 60 places for children and young people aged 3 - 16 years, who have physical disabilities and / or complex medical needs. It will also provide between 15 and 25 places for children and young people aged 3 - 16 years with severe language impairment whose needs cannot be met within a mainstream school or in specialist mainstream provision.
Building on existing partnership arrangements with mainstream schools, the school will also further develop outreach support and training across the city so that the expertise developed by Lancasterian can be shared and accessed by more mainstream schools and settings. This will initially focus on those primary schools that are being newly rebuilt, existing barrier free schools, and the development of specially resourced secondary provision in three high schools.
The school will also continue to manage and develop city wide services including the Independent Development Service, the Manchester Travel Training Partnership, the Acquired Brain Injury Service, and the Augmentative and Assisted Communication Service.
The package of proposals also includes the closure of Ewing School in West Didsbury which will close in 2012. Pupils at the school will continue to receive the very highest levels of teaching, support and guidance over the next three years and personalised plans will be agreed with families for each pupil currently at the school to ensure that their own individual needs are fully met as they move on from the school and continue their education.
The proposals now agreed will be further developed over the next three years and the whole process will be overseen by the Council's Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee to ensure maximum benefit for all pupils and that no young person is disadvantaged by the proposals as they move forward.
Councillor Sheila Newman, Executive Member Children's Services, Manchester City Council, said: "We have listened very carefully to what people have said to us during the consultation, and adapted some of our proposals to take into account views made.
"The plans give us the chance to further transform education and learning for children and young people who have special educational needs. We will be monitoring the impact of the changes to ensure maximum benefit for all pupils and to ensure that no individual child is disadvantaged by them.
"The proposals are part of a bigger blueprint for educational improvement in the city that includes our BSF, primary rebuilding, and academies programme, and are aimed at producing better outcomes for every pupil in the city. We are determined to make them work."
The six primary and three secondary mainstream schools that will be designated as specially resourced facilities to meet the needs of children and young people who have special educational needs are: Pike Fold Primary, St Willibrord's RC Primary, St James CE Gorton, Webster Primary, Barlow Hall Primary, Rackhouse Primary, and Abraham Moss High, St Peter's RC High, and Newall Green High School.
Today's decision will be followed by a statutory six week public notice period, the results of which will be reported to the Executive in December to conclude the statutory process.