SEN: Hundreds of new school places to be created in Liverpool

Over 4,000 children in the city have educational health care plans (EHCPs)

About 500 new school places are set to be created in Liverpool as part of a £20m investment into the city's special educational needs provision.

The places will be created at four sites across the city.

Over the last four years the number of children in the region with educational health care plans (EHCPs) has risen by 50% to more than 4,000.

Liverpool City Councillor Lila Bennett said the move was a "very significant achievement".

Ms Bennett, cabinet member for employment, educational attainment and skills, said hundreds of specialist placements will be created in time for the new school year, with up to 500 more over the next five years.

"It's not just a Liverpool problem and we will continue to work hard to create the right places for children," she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The scheme will see the creation of 40 spaces at the current Palmerston School site in Woolton for the start of the new term in September, with a further 75 in a second phase.

A further 60 places will be created at Bank View South from later this year on the site of the former Parklands school in Speke.

It had been originally planned to move pupils from Bank View in Fazakerley 14 miles across the city to the new provision, before being shelved in favour of a revised scheme.

Princes Primary School will relocate and will see the creation of 60 additional places for pupils with very complex additional needs and disabilities.

A satellite school for Millstead Primary in Everton will be based on the site of the former Hope School building on Naylorsfield Drive, Netherley.

From September, a two-phased approach will create 30 new places for the upcoming school year, with 30 more to cater for predicted future increases in pupil numbers.

Assessment by council officers in a report said given the costs of not delivering the projects, should the Department for Education's capital funding not be enough, the city council should use prudential borrowing to secure delivery of the new Millstead project.