Funding for new classrooms to boost Send provision

More than £3m is set to be spent in Wolverhampton on building more classrooms and a new unit for children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND), the city council has confirmed.

Field View Primary School in Bilston will have two new classrooms and extensions and refurbishments to make way for two new 30-pupil classes by 2028.

Three new classrooms would also be built at Grove Primary School in Ettingshall as part of plans for rising pupil numbers in the coming years.

Field View would also benefit from SEND provision.

Along with a "bulge" reception class set to open in September 2027, a Send unit, with a sensory room and ramps, would open with an initial eight places in the same year, followed by a further eight in 2028.

"The point-of-entry bulge classes at Field View Primary School and Grove Primary School and the establishment of a resourced provision at Field View Primary School would secure school places to help meet demand in [the area] for both mainstream and Send," a council report said.

"This would allow more families the opportunity to attend a preferred school and to ensure the council's statutory duty – to ensure the sufficiency of provision – can continue to be fulfilled."

In February, the government announced that only children with the most complex special educational needs would be eligible for EHCPs from 2035 in England.

A month later the council said it was looking at how it supports children with special educational needs and disabilities amid a "growing demand".

There are 7,784 children in the city receiving Send support, amounting to 14.8% of children, which is above the national average of 14.2%, a council report stated at the time.

The city council said demand was increasing faster than places could be created, forcing the authority to place children in independent provision in Wolverhampton as well as outside the city – which came at a high cost.

The average cost per child per year is said to be about £76,000.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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