A multi-million-pound investment to support children and young people in North Yorkshire with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) has been given the go-ahead.
The £20 million funding boost is to be used to create new places in schools and early years settings, plus a new school designed around the needs of children with autism.
A North Yorkshire Council spokesperson said it is estimated that an additional capacity of 350 SEND school places will have to be developed over the next three to five years.
They added that the investment will allow the council to find “highly suitable placements” for more young people closer to their local communities.
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Executive member for education, learning and skills, Cllr Annabel Wilkinson, said she was “delighted” that the council has been “able to pull together a programme to address the most urgent challenges in terms of school capacity” and “support more young people to access highly appropriate placements in their local communities”.
The investment programme also includes funding for essential works at Welburn Hall School, near Kirkbymoorside, where the condition of a historic building requires urgent attention and where the council has recently had to put into effect proposals to pause residential provision for two years from September 2023.
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