Westminster Report

By The Rt Hon Mark Francois Member of Parliament for Rayleigh and Wickford.

I AM delighted to write that Essex County Council (ECC) has recently announced the commencement of a formal consultation, on plans to build a new Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) school, for 100 plus pupils, at a site at Rawreth Lane, on the edge of Rayleigh.

The initiative for the new school, which is strongly supported by ECC, first came from the formal launch of my campaign to create a new SEND school in South Essex, in the House of Commons, last July.

Since this time, I have spoken on several occasions in the Commons about my campaign and the really pressing need for more special needs schools across south Essex. In addition, I have met with Ministers and Officials at the Department for Education, including the Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing (including Special Needs), David Johnston MP.

More locally, I have also been working very closely with Essex County Council’s Education Team, led by Coun Tony Ball, the Cabinet Member for Education Excellence, Lifelong Learning and Employability and the Director of Education at ECC Clare Kershaw, to help make this prospect a reality.

The school will be a “through-school” (catering for pupils from the ages of 3 to 18 inclusive) will be operated by an existing educational trust – subject to a competitive process – and is intended to start construction later this year, or next.

This schedule, (which is subject to planning permission, is in order to allow the new school to open its doors for its first special needs pupils, during the 2025-26 academic year.

The construction of the brand-new school will be co-financed by a combination of capital funding from Essex County Council, and section 106 receipts from recent major housing developments in the local area. In parallel, the plan is also to increase local mainstream capacity, by expanding nearby St. Nicholas Church of England Primary School, at Temple Way, (around 500 yards from the new SEND school site, on the current Countryside development) to the tune of two additional classrooms, which would also allow it to increase its intake.

The consultation exercise, designed to seek views and comments from local residents, potential users of the school and other interested parties, including on a proposed name for the new institution, will now run until midnight on Friday April 5. Anyone wishing to contribute to the consultation (and the more participation the merrier) is strongly encouraged to make their views known, via: consultations.essex.gov.uk/school-organisation/wolseypark.

As I have set out previously, I launched this campaign last year, as we already have a number of very good special needs schools in Essex, but they are now—almost without exception—heavily over-subscribed, and we simply do not have enough special needs places, particularly in the south of the county, to deal with ever increasing demand.

As a result, many parents end up having to go through long appeals processes, desperately trying to get their children into an appropriate school. Therefore, I am now being approached, as part of my constituency casework, by an increasing number of frustrated parents who simply cannot find a Special Needs school place for their children.

For instance, I was told anecdotally, that at Glenwood special school, in Benfleet, last summer, they had 27 appeals for admittance outstanding.

Taking all of this into account, after months of hard work, I am absolutely delighted that this project has now finally taken off the runway. This exciting new project should finally help expand the much-needed capacity of SEND education in South Essex, which I do hope will bring a real benefit, for parents, and children with special needs alike.

Finally, I would like to commend Essex County Council for all their proactive endeavours on this project and I hope we will now receive a very positive response to the consultation, over the next few weeks, so the school can then open in the next academic year.

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