Around 500 new school places are to be created across Liverpool as part of a multi-million pound investment into the city’s special needs education provision.
Liverpool Council’s cabinet is to pump almost £20m into plans to increase funding for a number of revised schemes to ease the burden on school placements. Hundreds of new places are to be created at a total of four sites in the coming months, including at the former Palmerston School on Beaconsfield Road and a new build for Princes Primary School.
In the last four years, the number of children across the city with educational health care plans (EHCPs) has risen by almost 50%, with more than 4,000 young people recorded.
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Among the schemes includes the creation of 40 spaces at the current Palmerston School for the start of the new term in September, with a further 75 in a second phase. A further 60 will be created at Bank View South from later this year on the site of the former Parklands school in Speke.
It had been originally planned to move pupils from Bank View in Fazakerley 14 miles across the city to the new provision, before being shelved in favour of a revised scheme.
A cabinet report considered by members said: “The project will necessitate the relocation of New Heights to another part of the site and adaptations to ensure the building is suitable for the needs of pupils with complex SEND. The cost for the work is estimated at £4,464,000 plus contingency.”
It was previously agreed to relocate Princes Primary school to a new site due to the poor condition of the existing building and the need to create additional places for pupils with very complex additional needs and disabilities. The project will replace 150 places in the old building and create a further 60 places for primary children with severe and complex needs.
Following allocation of a site, feasibility work has been undertaken with the school to develop their requirements. Liverpool Council is to spend £1.8m to develop the scheme to detailed design.
A satellite school for Millstead Primary in Everton will be based on the site of the former Hope School building on Naylorsfield Drive, Netherley, following a lengthy consultation. From September, a two-phased approach will create 30 new places for the upcoming school year, with 30 more to cater for predicted future increases in pupil numbers.
It is anticipated costs will come to around £4.7m. Cllr Lila Bennett, cabinet member for employment, educational attainment and skills, said it was a “very significant achievement to see the creation of hundreds of specialist placements” for the new school year as well as up to 500 more over the next five years.
She said: “It’s not just a Liverpool problem and we will continue to work hard to create the right places for children.” Assessment by council officers within the report said given the costs of not delivering the projects, should the Department for Education’s capital funding not be enough, the city council should use prudential borrowing to secure delivery of the new Millstead project.
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