(UK) Somerset: Council facing 'financial emergency; 12 SPED units to be added to schools

July 22, 2025, BBC News: SEN units are planned for schools from September

SW England

Twelve units for special education needs children are planned for mainstream schools in Somerset - with the first six opening in the next academic year.

The move is tipped to save the cash-strapped local authority £17m [$23M] over the next five years.

Councillor Heather Shearer, Somerset Council's lead member for Children, Families and Education, said the change will allow children to learn in their communities, with their friends, without travelling long distances to be educated.

She said: "We have a number of children who don't have appropriate places to be going to, and we need to make sure, we have as many places as the children need." . . .

Each one will have around six to eight young people in a class with a social, emotional or mental health need.

It will also support children who have a neurological, speech or language barrier. 

This entitles them to specialist provision.

But Somerset Council's state-maintained special schools are full, and the local authority does not have the regulatory powers or the money to open new ones.

In the past year more than 500 children and young people with ECHPs in Somerset have been educated in independent settings, which are much more expensive than state-maintained ones.

In a council paper in March, officers said the financial pressure on the local authority to deliver special provision was "one of the contributory factors behind its decision to declare a financial emergency".

But Ms Shearer denied that the primary reason for introducing the change was financial. . . .

Ruth Hobbs, the CEO of the Somerset Parent Carer Forum, said she is supportive of the plans to have SEN units in mainstream schools. . . .

Headteacher Brian Walton said: "My staff are as trained as special schools. I think our building is no different in lots of ways, but there may be some very bespoke provisions that we don't have."