Changing Face Of Bristol Special Needs Care

Looking after children is hard work. Caring for children with special educational needs can be physically, mentally and emotionally draining.

On top of that, many parents find they have to battle to get the right schooling and care for their youngsters.

So after all that, they might be forgiven for not having the energy left to trawl the council website to find out about any proposed changes to special school provision in the city.

But many of those involved would find it worth their while to learn about the wide-ranging plans the authority has drawn up.

The aim is to make sure that appropriate schools are provided as close as possible to where children live.

The target is that suitable places will be available within a 20-mile radius, with the vast majority within the city and ideally within one of three areas: north, south and central/east.

This could mean that fewer children will have to go to special schools a long way from their homes.

The council’s strategy also has to take into account the changing demands.

Over the past couple of decades, there has been a strong swing towards “inclusion” – where children with additional needs are taught in mainstream schools with suitable support where possible.

This means that many youngsters with learning difficulties – especially those with physical or sensory impairments – who would once have gone to special schools, now attend primary or comprehensive schools alongside able-bodied youngsters.

But at the same time there has been an increase in the need for special school places in Bristol for children with behavioural difficulties and with autistic spectrum disorders.

In short, we probably have enough special school spaces overall but we do not necessarily have the right provision in the right places.

It’s a complicated business, because every child is different, and some have a combination of difficulties.

But everyone agrees that the current situation, in which 20 children from Bristol attend residential schools in the independent sector and outside the area, at a cost of £171,117 each, is less than desirable.

The council’s suggested solution is to close an underused school, Kingsdon Manor, in Somerset, sell the site, and then use that money to provide two small residential/ respite hostels attached to special schools within the city boundaries.

But the National Union of Teachers is opposed to the closure of Kingsdon Manor, which it says is a successful school that gets excellent results with some very difficult pupils.

And Charlotte Leslie, a Conservative who has been spearheading a campaign against special education cuts, is concerned the closure is being rushed and causing undue stress to parents and staff.

The council says it costs more than £60,000 per pupil per year to send them to the residential Kingsdon Manor school in Somerton. Pupils are reluctant to board, particularly once they get to about age 14, it says.

It proposes to send boarding pupils to its other residential special school, Notton House, near Lacock in Wiltshire.

Day pupils would go to Florence Brown School in Knowle West, which would change its focus from a school for pupils with learning difficulties to one for children with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties. The school is due to be rebuilt.

The reorganisation of special education runs alongside the ongoing transformation of secondary schools in Bristol and the imminent review of primary schools.

The fact that several of the comprehensive schools that have been rebuilt have spare places has given the council scope to provide appropriate accommodation for special needs pupils alongside mainstream youngsters.

Brislington Enterprise College, which is said to have a strong inclusion ethos, looks set to have units for physically impaired, autistic and learning difficulties students.

Briarwood Special School is likely to get improved premises as part of the Whitefield Fishponds School redevelopment, and there are plans for New Fosseway School to move into the £38 million Hartcliffe Education Campus.

Kingsweston School already has an autism unit within the rebuilt Portway School and Elmfield School for deaf children has its secondary department within the new Fairfield School.

Several primary schools have special school inclusion classes or resource bases for pupils with particular needs and the review aims to make sure these are well spread between the three areas.

Councillor Derek Pickup, executive councillor for children and young people, said the aim was to ensure that special schools, as well as primary and secondary schools, were fit for purpose to provide a 21st century service.

“We must make sure special educational needs is not seen as second best but remains high on our agenda,” he said.

“We have got to make the most effective use of the resources we have got. It is a changing situation and we have to respond to that.

“The changes we plan to make will provide services closer to people’s homes, which is better for the children and for their families, as well as saving the council money on transport.”