(UK) Dorchester: 59 more SPED places to be created over summer
- The end of childhood
- Aug 6, 2025
- 1 min read
Aug 3, 2025, Carmarthenshire News Online: Additional 59 special education places will be created in Dorchester after rethink
WORK to provide an extra 59 special education places at the Dorchester Learning Centre will continue over the summer.
Dorset Council's Cabinet has approved, undisclosed, additional spending on the project to get the work done while the pupils are not on campus at Winterbourne Monkton, just to the south of Dorchester.
The agreement comes with an apology that the Cabinet request had been last-minute with an admission that the extra spending approval needed had 'fallen through the cracks'.
Education and children's services Portfolio Holder Cllr Clare Sutton told Tuesday evening's Cabinet that unless the spending could be agreed the work would have to wait another year, probably costing more.
She told council colleagues that the 'savings' from providing the places locally were immense – at a fraction of the £74,000 [$98,000] a year places typically cost when bought from the independent sector.
She said there would also be savings on transport costs for pupils which was better for the council, the pupils and their families. . . .
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