A bid by Bath & North East Somerset Council to the Department for Education to open a new Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) school has been successful, it has announced.
The new special school will provide spaces for 120 children and young people, with a proposed opening in 2025.
Alongside the Department for Education, the council is now seeking proposals from organisations which are interested in establishing and running the new school that fits within local strategies for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
Currently, there are three special schools, two generic special schools, Fosse Way in Radstock and Three Ways in Bath, together with Aspire Special School, which cater for young people with social, emotional and mental health difficulties.
To complement the existing provision, the council has identified the need for an additional special school catering for young people with a diagnosis of Autism (ASD), with Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD) or with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD).
Councillor Dine Romero, cabinet member for Children, Young People and Communities, said: “The announcement from the department for Education that the Secretary of State has approved our application to establish a new special free school is very welcome and exciting.
“In Bath and North East Somerset we endeavour to work closely with our families and recognise the need for an increase in provision for our young people with special educational needs.
“I am very pleased to have supported the bid for this school and will continue to support the work to see the completion of the project and the opening of this new special school.”
