(UK) Tameside: $2M to add 133 SPED places

Sept 5, 2025, Manchester Evening News: Plans for additional special educational needs places in school approved

A school in Hyde will get an extension to improve its provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

St George’s Primary School in Hyde now has permission to build a small extension to the main school building to provide additional SEND space in an underutilised part of the site. . . .

Separate to this application, Tameside council is pushing ahead with its £1.5m [$2M] plan to increase school places for SEND in Tameside.

According to data taken from a recent Freedom of Information (FOI) request, Tameside council spent £1,589,155 [$2.1M] in 2023/24 on education placements outside of the area. The largest cost in this relates to transporting the children to and from their specialist schools.

This figure has more than doubled since 2019/20 when it cost the local authority £605,166 [$817K], according to the FOI submitted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service. The council hopes that its latest scheme can help to reduce this cost.

The local authority has recently invested £1.5m to create an additional 133 places for SEND pupils aged five to 16 within mainstream schools.