23/12/2021

Cardiff Council is consulting on a series of significant plans toexpand provision for children and young people with Additional Learning Needs (ALN), Complex Learning Needs (CLN) and health and wellbeing needs, to help meet increasing demand for places in special schools and in primary and secondary Specialist Resource Bases (SRB) in schools across the city.

Members of the public are being invited to share their views on the following:

Emotional health and wellbeing provision;Changesto provide high quality places for learners with emotional health and wellbeing needs aged 11 - 19

To meet the increasing demand for special school places for learners with emotional health and wellbeing needs it is proposed to:

• Increase the capacity of Greenhill School from 64 to 160 places
• Transfer Greenhill school to new build accommodation across two sites at the Dutch Garden Centre site, Maes Y Bryn Road (near to M4 J30) and Ty Glas Road in Llanishen, with 80 pupils on each site from September 2025.

To meet the demand for specialist resource base places for learners aged 11 - 19 with emotional and wellbeing needs it is proposed to:

• Establish a 20 place Specialist Resource Base at Cardiff West Community High School from September 2022
• Establish a 20 place Specialist Resource Base at Eastern High from September 2022 

This consultation runs until 1 February 2022. Please visitwww.cardiff.gov.uk/ALNschoolproposals

Complex Learning Needs and Autism Spectrum Condition provision;Changes to provide high quality places for learners aged 3 - 19 with complex learning needs and Autism Spectrum Condition

To meet the increasing demand for special school places and specialist resource base places for learners aged 3 - 19 with complex learning needs and Autism Spectrum Condition, the Council is proposing to increase the number of Additional Learning Needs places at a range of special schools, primary schools and secondary schools from September 2022.

This consultation runs until 1 February 2022. Please visitwww.cardiff.gov.uk/ALNschoolproposals

Currently Cardiff has 17 Specialist Resources Bases (SRB) hosted at primary and secondary schoolswhich provide support and opportunities so that pupils with learning difficulties can succeed in a mainstream school environment.There are also seven Special Schools, five primary wellbeing classes, a specialist Pupil Referral Unit and a primary speech and language class.

Cabinet Member for Education, Employment and Skills, Cllr Sarah Merry said: "Already in Cardiff, we have increased the number of Specialist Resource Bases and the expansion and rebuild plans for Riverbank and Woodlands Special Schools are progressing.

"However, pupil population growth and the increased complexity of needs of some learners has meant that the requirement for specialist provision is greater and the number of pupils requiring a place in a special school or SRB continues to grow.

Cllr Merry added:"These latest consultations will allow people to have their say on plans to increase the range of options for learners, ways in which thepoor condition of some school buildings and the suitability of learning environments can be addressed and plans toensure that our most vulnerable pupils can access specialist environments and expertise, so that they can thrive in the future."