(UK) Norfolk Co: $53M for 2 special schools; 100 place autism school, 170 place complex needs
More than £40m [$53M] is to be spent to build new schools for children with special educational needs in two Norfolk towns.
Senior councillors at Norfolk County Council have agreed the authority will use money from the Department for Education to self-build the special schools in Great Yarmouth and Downham Market.
Education bosses say the school at North Denes in Yarmouth would be for 170 children with complex needs and the one proposed for Ryston End in Downham Market would cater for about 100 children with autism.
The schools have been in the pipeline since 2023, but the government only agreed it was prepared to fund them last December. . . .
Robin Hunter-Clarke, the council's deputy leader, said: “It is vital that we get on with this as soon as possible for the benefit of these children”.
Education officials at County Hall have been wrestling with increased demand and complexity of needs among children with special educational needs and disabilities in recent years, with soaring bills to transport them to and from schools.
The authority has been creating specialist resource bases at mainstream schools aimed to provide places nearer to where children live, so they do not have to travel long distances to special schools.
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