Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

SEND Places: Gloucestershire

Monday 29 January 2024 · 3 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 2 Partly answered 1 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Gloucestershire has an estimated 1700 school places for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities as of 2024.
  • Local authorities received over 1.5 billion in high needs capital allocations in the last two years to create additional places.
  • The government has announced 41 new special free schools with another 38 planned.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Laurence Robertson Con
Children & Families
Context

In Gloucestershire, there are concerns about the number of special educational needs school places available for pupils.

Question

What recent estimate she has made of the number of school places available for pupils with special educational needs in Gloucestershire?

Answer from David Johnston

Places for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities have increased in Gloucestershire since 2015. We estimate that there are 1,700 places, and the local authority opened two additional settings in 2022-23.

Answered
Was this summary accurate? Tell us

How accurate was this summary? (1 = poor, 5 = spot on)

Get updates like this by email
Q2 Laurence Robertson Con
Education
Context

In Gloucestershire, there are currently 120 pupils assessed as needing special school places but those places are not available. The number of needed places is expected to increase.

Question

At the moment, 120 pupils have been assessed as needing special school places, but those places are not available. Over the next couple of years it looks like at least 200 more special school places will be needed in Gloucestershire. Can the Minister look at the situation urgently to see what he can do to help?

Answer from David Johnston

We are working closely with local authorities on this issue. We have allocated more than £1.5 billion of high needs capital allocations in the last two years for local authorities to create additional places. Gloucestershire County Council has announced a 200-place moderate and additional learning difficulties school for four to 16-year-olds, to be delivered through our free school presumption route in early 2026.

Answered
Was this summary accurate? Tell us

How accurate was this summary? (1 = poor, 5 = spot on)

Get updates like this by email
Q3 Helen Morgan Lib Dem North Shropshire
Education
Context

There are limited specialist state-provided schools for special educational needs in Shropshire.

Question

There are only three specialist schools provided by the state in Shropshire. Two of them are—

Answer from David Johnston

In addition to working with Gloucestershire, we work with Shropshire on its capacity. We have already announced 41 new special free schools with a further 38 in the pipeline.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The number and distribution of specialist state-provided schools in Shropshire was not addressed specifically, instead focusing on other regions.

Was this summary accurate? Tell us

How accurate was this summary? (1 = poor, 5 = spot on)

Get updates like this by email