Special schools in £50m shake-up

7:34am Thursday 28th December 2006

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A SHAKE-UP of special needs education in Yorkshire will see new schools and units opened in Ryedale, Hambleton, Knaresborough and Selby.

North Yorkshire County Council will spend almost £50million revamping facilities across the region.

A new special needs school serving students from Ryedale will be rebuilt on the site of Woodlands School, in Scarborough.

Another new special needs school will also be built on the site of Forest School, in Knaresborough.

In Selby, specialist places in mainstream schools will be created at Barlby High School and Thorpe Willoughby Primary School - but the town will still be without a dedicated special school of its own.

The revamp follows an Ofsted report which branded North Yorkshire's specialist school buildings not fit for purpose.

In response, the council drew up a new masterplan, reducing the number of special schools from six to three, and housing some children in purpose-built units in existing schools.

Such units will open in Lady Lumley's School, in Pickering, Kirkbymoorside Community Primary School and Easingwold School, and elsewhere in the county.

Local authority chiefs say that although the special needs provision will cost more, council tax will not rise, with the extra funding instead coming from Government grants.

County councillor Caroline Patmore, executive member for children and young people's services, said: "A combination of modern, purpose-built special schools and purpose-built units within existing mainstream schools can offer the very best education.

"It can do so in a way which means wherever people live in this very large county, the facilities which they need are local to them and do not entail - as they often do now - an hour's taxi ride to a suitable school.

"This review means that there will be a long-term, crucial role for special schools, which will be at the heart of the new network."