Major enhance for fogeys as £3billion inclusive colleges bundle unveiled
Thousands of students with special education needs and disabilities will be better supported in mainstream schools under a multibillion-pound plan to reform classrooms.
Thousands of students with special education needs and disabilities (SEND) will be better supported in mainstream schools under a multibillion-pound plan to reform classrooms.
The Government has announced £3billion to create some 50,000 new inclusion places in mainstream schools.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has vowed the investment will lead to a transformational expansion of specialist, calm learning spaces in mainstream schools.
The Department for Education (DfE) said they will be equipped with facilities to support children with needs such as autism or ADHD who may feel overstimulated by busy school environments. It said the investment will help ensure children have got accessible education closer to home amid at least 180,000 pupils with SEND currently receiving transport to school.
READ MORE: Students could take GCSEs and A-Level exams on screens under major shake-up
The Government also confirmed it will deliver on all 10,000 places due to be created by planned special free schools. To prioritise the investment in specialist places, a number of mainstream free school projects will not go ahead, ministers added.
The £3bn cash boost – which will be allocated to different areas in the spring – builds on £740million invested for the special school places.
The capital investment is part of the government’s £38bn investment in the education estate from 2025-26 to 2029-30, which also includes funding for the expansion of the school rebuilding programme.
The pledge comes ahead of the SEND white paper, which is due to be published at the start of next year. It is expected to include major plans to overhaul the in-crisis SEND system.
Ministers said the £3bn announcement will lay the groundwork for significant future reform of the SEND support system by helping to make schools inclusive by design.
Parents and experts have long called for improvements to support within the mainstream education system, as well as in specialist provisions.
In an interview with The Mirror in the summer, Bridget Phillipson said she wants all teachers in mainstream education to have SEND training. The Education Secretary said “brilliant” work was already happening in this area that shows what can be delivered on a “bigger scale”.
Ms Phillipson wants training to be improved in mainstream schools so teachers can support students at the “earliest possible point”.
Today, she said: “This government will fix the broken education system for children and young people with SEND by making sure that their local school is also the right school.
“This £3billion investment will transform lives. It will open the door to opportunity for tens of thousands of children with SEND, giving them the chance to learn, belong and succeed in their local community. This is how we build an education system that works for every child.”
