SEN units are planned for schools from September

A special needs class at Brookside Academy in Street which has a special school within the mainstream school

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 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."

Councillor Heather Shearer from Somerset Council said the driving force for the change is providing more special needs places and ones that are closer to where children live

The first six areas to get a SEN unit will be schools in Taunton, Bridgwater, Burnham-on-Sea, Watchet, Crewkerne and Dulverton.

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.

Ms Shearer said the ability of the teacher will be the same as one working in a special school and teaching assistants will also provide support.

New staff will receive training, and an induction programme and support structures are being put into place, drawing on expertise from local special schools and specialists.

"The approach is right," Ms Shearer said.

"We want to get it in place as quickly as possible, so people can benefit from it, but the care has to go into the choice of the children and also the teachers."

The roll out of special units will also ensure more children have access to specialist provision.

Ms Shearer said that a number of children do not have appropriate places.

This is partly because in the past four years there has been a 124 percent increase in the number of young people in Somerset who need an Education, Health and Care Plan (ECHP).

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.

She said: "Getting children into the right provision closer to home will be cheaper, but the best thing is that it will be better for them. They don't then get stuck in a school miles and miles away from home, possibly not with their friends."

She added there is also a real benefit for everyone if a child's special educational needs are identified and supported early on.

Ruth Hobbs from the Somerset Parent Carer Forum said the the key is identifying the right children to make sure their needs can be met

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

She said: "I think if we get the right children into the settings, it will work really well for them and their families.

"It's about identifying the right children now to make sure that their needs are being met within those settings and ensuring that those settings are inclusive - not just the actual setting being a specialist setting, but also the wider community in a school."

Brian Walton, the headteacher of Brookside Academy in Street, said integrating a specialist unit into a mainstream school "is better for society as a whole"

Brookside Academy - a mainstream school in Street - already has specialist provision and operates in a similar way to the model being rolled out.

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."

But he said he also has the benefit of mainstream teachers that can teach the curriculum to a very high level.

"It's just as good for my mainstream children, that they are working alongside other children that have challenges in life. Actually that's better for society as a whole," he said.

Somerset Council said 12 schools in the county will get a SEN unit in the next academic year.

Feasibility studies are also under way for another 12 which include schools in these areas: Minehead, Yeovil, Wincanton, Bruton, Cheddar, Wellington, Ilminster and Frome.