Capital fund for Local Offer
Local authorities must ensure there are sufficient good school places for all pupils, including those with SEN and disabilities.
In 2019 the Government committed £215 million of capital funding to help local authorities create new school places and improve existing facilities for children and young people with special educational needs and and disabilities (SEND), in consultation with parents and providers.
Leicester City required more places for children and young people in specialist places for September 2019 and identified an increasing need for places over the next 5 to 7 years as our school population increased overall.
Since that time there has been a significant investment £17 million in the creation of additional specialist places for children and young people experiencing SEND in Leicester City. This has taken two main forms:
- Expansion of our special school provision
We are currently in the process of completing expansions of several special schools creating 200 additional placements for the academic year 2021/22 and an additional 24 places for 2022/23. - Expansion of our Designated Specialist Provisions (DSPs)
We have committed £1.5 million to developing additional DSP places in Leicester City. These are resourced provisions in mainstream schools for children and young people with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). Since 2019 we have created an additional 52 DSP places with an additional 68 becoming available in the academic year 2021/22. There are also plans to further develop the DSP programme in the future.