New school to be built in Gamlingay for children with special educational need and disabilities

A new 60-place secondary school is to be built in Gamlingay as part of a scheme to offer more children and young people with SEND access to high-quality specialised learning.

It’s one of seven new special free schools approved by the government alongside the existing 83 already committed to opening.

Once complete, the investment will almost double the number of special free school places available across the country – from around 8,500 to 19,000 – ensuring all children receive a quality education, tailored to their needs.

Backed by £70 million, local authorities will help inform the development of new national standards to improve the consistency of provision across the country.

Each area will also bring together education and health services, as well as parents and families to develop an inclusion plan that sets out how they will deliver local services in a co-ordinated way – for example making sure a child with special educational needs who is behind in reading is quickly assessed and given the right support.

This addresses feedback from families that the current system is often fragmented with agencies not working together.

The news follows recent confirmation that high needs funding now totals £10.5 billion – an increase of over 60 per cent since 2019-20.

Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing, Claire Coutinho said: “Making sure children with special educational needs and disabilities get a superb education is a priority.

“Earlier this year our Improvement Plan set out systemic reforms to make sure every child and young person gets consistently high-quality support, no matter where in the country they live.

“Today we’re making sure that those reforms are informed by the experiences of real families, up and down the country, and creating the thousands of new places at specialist schools and in staff training courses that are needed to make sure our plan is a success.”

The Government has also confirmed an expansion in training for early years staff, adding an extra 2,000 training places for early years special educational needs co-ordinators on top of the 5,000 already announced.